Dr. Catherine Koerner

Dr Catherine Koerner works as a lecturer and as Campus Coordinator for the Community and Human Services courses at Federation University, Berwick Campus.  She is also a consultant providing expertise on Teaching and Learning at Endeavour College where she is the Course Advisory Committee adviser.   Dr Koerner is a recipient of an Australian Teaching and Learning Council Program award for programs that enhance student learning at Flinders University.  Deeply committed to social justice, Dr Koerner uses a critical analysis of colonialism, race and religion to understand the effect of power relations in inter-cultural dialogue and successful peaceful negotiations. Her research background utilises first and second person qualitative research in Social and Cultural aspects of Ethnography.

As a collaborative researcher, Dr Koerner’s works in partnership with Aboriginal people/communities:  She won the National University Indigenous Partnership Award, (with Associate Prof Simone Ulalka Tur and Dr Christopher Wilson), awarded by the former Department of Education Science and Training (DEST), and the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council. Her special research interest is in the development and healing of Australian communities and the exploration of ancient Tibetan and Aboriginal knowledge and wisdom.  Her work includes her pro-bono research and advocacy with Tibetan Refugees in Protracted Exile, to be outlined in her second book co-authored with Tenzin Choephel, PhD candidate, Oxford University: “The patience to win Freedom”: Contemporary Chinese Colonialism and Tibetan aspirations for peaceful strategies: An ethnography with Tibetans exiled in Nepal and India”.  She worked as a consultant with expertise on race, providing input into the “Smart Casual” project, a National equity training program for Law and Legal Studies teachers.