STAFF PROFILE
Professor Cathy Brigden
Cathy Brigden is a Professor in Labour History and Industrial Relations. She is in the Department of Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, School of Management, and a member of the Centre for People, Organisations and Work. In 2021, Cathy was made an Honorary Life Member of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand.
Research Interests
- Role of peak labour councils
- Trade union women's history
- Labour History
- Trade union theory and practice
Teaching Expertise
- Industrial relations
- Managing people
- Negotiation & advocacy skills
- HRM professional practices
- Occupational health and safety
Current Research
Cathy's current research includes a new project, Regions undergoing transition: the roles of unions and their peak bodies (ARC DP210102116), with Professor Peter Fairbrother (University of Tasmania). The project focuses on exploring the historical and contemporary roles of organised labour in the formulation of regional development policy in two specific regions in transition, North West Tasmania and Gippsland, Victoria.
Her project Indigeneity, industrial relations and work (paused in 2020) is looking at the study of industrial relations through an Indigenous lens, Two questions shape the research: 1. How do you reimagine your discipline once you know you are a guest on country and 2. How does it affect what you consider to be worthy of knowing, teaching, researching?
A third project, Radical Theatre: a comparative analysis, with Lisa Milner (Southern Cross University), is in its final stages with a forthcoming edited book on the Australian New Theatre bringing together Cathy and Lisa's research with specially commissioned works.
- M.Com (Melb)
- PhD(Syd)
Professional membership
- Executive committee, Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand
- Member: Editorial Board, Labour History
- Member: Australian Society for the Study of Labour History
- Member: Industrial Relations Society
- Member: Labor and Working Class History Assocation
- Member: Union Strategy Group, University of Sydney
- Brigden, C.,Fricker, A.,Johnson, R.,Chester, A. (2020). Speaking Together: Reflections on Reconciliation, Yarning Circles, and Signature Pedagogies In: Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, Springer, Singapore
- Brigden, C. (2019). Voice And Agency: Workers With A Disability And Trade Unionism In: Labour & Industry, 29, 118 - 131
- Milner, L.,Brigden, C. (2019). Staging international communism: British–Australian radical theatre connections In: Contemporary British History, 33, 507 - 523
- Milner, L.,Brigden, C. (2018). No handmaidens here: women, volunteering and gender dynamics in the Sydney New Theatre In: Women's History Review, 27, 266 - 287
- Macdonald, F.,Charlesworth, S.,Brigden, C. (2018). Access to Collective Bargaining for Low Paid Workers In: Collective Bargaining Under the Fair Work Act, The Federation Press, Annadale, Australia
- Brigden, C. (2018). Work, Identity and Trade Union Responses and Strategies In: Work and Identity: Contemporary Perspectives on Workplace Diversity, Springer International Publishing AG, Cham, Switzerland
- Mees, B.,Brigden, C. (2017). Workers' Capital: Industry funds and the fight for universal superannuation in Australia, Allen and Unwin, Sydney
- Gregory, S.,Brigden, C. (2017). Gendered scenes: Conceptualising the negotiation of paid work and child care among performers in film, television and theatre production In: Media International Australia, 163, 151 - 162
- Kaine, S.,Brigden, C. (2015). Union responses to regulatory change: Strategies of protective layering In: The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 26, 614 - 630
- Brigden, C.,Milner, L. (2015). Radical theatre mobility: Unity Theatre, UK, and the New Theatre, Australia In: New Theatre Quarterly, 31, 328 - 342
1 PhD Current Supervisions2 PhD Completions
- Worker voice in the regions: Re-imagining social and economic transition. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects 2021 from (2021 to 2024)