Catherine Bishop is a New Zealand-born, Australian-based historian specialising in gender and business history. In 2016 she won the Ashurst Business Literature Prize.

Early life and education

Bishop grew up in the North Island town of

Whanganui Whanganui, also spelt Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whanganui is ...

, where her father was a teacher at

Whanganui Collegiate School Whanganui Collegiate School is a state-integrated, coeducational, day and boarding secondary school located in Whanganui, in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. Affiliated with the Anglican Church, it is the third oldest school in N ...

and the family lived on the school grounds. Bishop attended

Whanganui High School Whanganui High School is a large state co-educational New Zealand secondary school located in Whanganui, New Zealand. Founded in 1958, the school has a roll of 1479 students, including international students as of July 2018, making it the largest ...

and then moved to Wellington to study history and maths at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington (), also known by its shorter names "VUW" or "Vic", is a public university, public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and w ...

. She completed a master's degree in history at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in Canberra. In 2012 she completed a PhD in history at the Australian National University, studying the lives of businesswomen in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and Wellington.

Career

In 2015, Bishop published some of her PhD research as the book ''Minding Her Own Business: Colonial businesswomen in Sydney.'' The following year, it won the Ashurst Business Literature Prize. In 2016, she was the Australian Religious History Fellow at the

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establis ...

. The same year she won the Australian Women's History Network Mary Bennett prize and received a New Zealand History Trust Award to help fund her research for her second book extending her PhD research, ''Women Mean Business: Colonial businesswomen in New Zealand'' (Otago University Press, 2019). In 2019, she was a visiting fellow at

Northumbria University Northumbria University (legally the University of Northumbria at Newcastle) is a Public research university, public research university located in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, North East of England. It has been a university since 199 ...

in England. From 2019 to 2021 she has a postdoctoral fellowship at

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

and is working on research into Australian businesswomen since 1880. In 2021 Bishop published ''Too much cabbage and Jesus Christ : Australia's 'mission girl' Annie Lock'' (Wakefield Press), this was an extension of her master's degree thesis, about Australian missionary

Annie Lock Ann Lock, better known as Annie Lock (1 August 1876 – 10 February 1943), was a missionary of the Australian Aborigines Mission, (later United Aborigines Mission). She worked across Australia for nearly 35 years and played an important role in b ...

. Bishop is also a contributor to the

Dictionary of Sydney The Dictionary of Sydney is a digital humanities project to produce an online, expert-written encyclopaedia of all aspects of the history of Sydney. Description The Dictionary is a partnership between the City of Sydney, the University of Sydne ...

and the

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop, Catherine People from Whanganui Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Victoria University of Wellington alumni Australian National University alumni 21st-century New Zealand historians New Zealand women historians People educated at Whanganui High School