Biography and expertise
Biography
Dr Kathomi Gatwiri is an Adjunct Professor in SCU’s Faculty of Health, an ARC DECRA Fellow with the Centre for Children & Young People, President of the Australian Women & Gender Studies Association, and a practising psychotherapist. A leading Afro‑diasporic scholar in Australia, her award‑winning research explores racial trauma, belonging, blackness, and migranthood. Since completing her PhD in 2017, she has secured over $1.5 million in competitive research funding and published more than 100 outputs, including the books African Womanhood and Incontinent Bodies and Afrodiasporic Identities in Australia.
She is the Founder and Director of 'Healing Together', a service that provides accessible, culturally affirming therapeutic support for people impacted by racial trauma.
Dr Gatwiri 's work contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals
Research
My research approach is grounded in decolonising methodologies that attempt to develop transformative knowledge about and for those people who are assigned categories of difference. I see my research strategies as a tool for centring marginalised knowledge, which is not just about producing 'knowledge' but an opportunity to think critically about how and who we research. Currently, my research interests are divided into three programs: 1) Research on blackness, Africanness and migranthood in Australia 2) Research on experiences of children and young people in out-of-home care and 3) Research on the scholarship of anti-racist teaching and research.
Community engagement
I am also the founder of Femicide Count - A platform that collates all reported deaths of Kenyan women who have been killed through violence.
Supervision
I am available to supervise HDR students interested in research that is particularly centred on decolonising methodologies and anti-racist pedagogies, as well as those interested in exploring trauma knowledge through an anti-oppressive framework.