Catherine Hastings

Research Fellow Dr Catherine Hastings’ interdisciplinary research concentrates on understanding issues of social justice and inequality alongside developing and evaluating policy and program responses for social change. Recent focus areas include legal need for clients of the legal assistance sector, the causes of homelessness for families and older women, and international student financial and housing precarity.

Catherine’s current research, the Legal Needs Project funded by a Macquarie University Research Fellowship, investigates how, why and in what context types of legal needs develop for marginalised and disadvantaged populations in Australia. 

The philosophy of critical realism informs her research. Her work aims to extend how social science research and complexity-informed evaluation methodologies may operationalise critical realism to deliver more transformative findings.  

In addition to her academic work, she undertakes applied social research and evaluation for government and not-for-profit organisations. Over the last decade, she has delivered projects for peak bodies and community legal centres within the legal assistance sector.  

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy, 2020, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University
• Master of Policy and Applied Social Research, 2013, Macquarie University
• Master of Arts in International Studies, 2009, University of Technology Sydney

Awards

• Macquarie University, Arts Faculty Early Career Researcher Prize, 2024
• Macquarie University, Vice-Chancellor's Commendation for Academic Excellence, 2020 (PhD)
• Macquarie University, DVC-Research Postgraduate Student Research Commendation Award, 2017
• Macquarie University, Vice-Chancellor's Commendation for Academic Excellence, 2013 (MPASR)

Leadership

• International Association for Critical Realism (IACR)
  • Secretary 2022-2024
  • Council Member 2025 - 2027
• Journal of Critical Realism
  • Editorial Committee 2023 - 2028
• Centre for Critical Realism
  • Board Member 2023 - 

• David Shaw 'The education of children with incarcerated parents' (PhD, Co-supervisor, SCU)
• Maie Sufan ' A low-cost sustainable housing model for elderly migrant communities in Australia' (PhD, Co-supervisor, UTS)

Awarded:

• Helen Easton 'Contested Discourses: A Feminist Socio-Legal Examination Of Legal Responses To Prostitution In The UK' (PhD, Associate Supervisor, MQ) December 2023