Catherine Bateson

Dr. Catherine Bateson is a tutor and lecturer of American History at Durham University in the UK, where she teaches eighteenth and nineteenth century American slavery, Native American history, and Civil War history to undergraduate students. She has taught previously at the universities of Edinburgh, Gloucestershire, Wolverhampton, and Sussex, again specializing in American history, American studies, and British racial history. Catherine is a passionate Civil War cultural historian, focusing on the song and music culture of Irish immigrants to America. She gained her PhD in 2018 from the University of Edinburgh, where she worked on the culture and sentiments of Irish American Civil War songs and music, and is currently working on a manuscript about this topic. Her focus is on transnational culture and the ways in which songs by and about the Irish in the Civil War were disseminated and spread across the Union and Confederacy (and across the Atlantic back to Ireland). Catherine has written about aspects of her research in the Journal of History and Cultures and in an edited collection on American transnational culture and identity (published by Peter Lang); she has also produced numerous blog pieces and online bibliographies related to her work and aspects of song culture. Catherine is also the current vice-chair of the Scottish Association for the Study of America (SASA) and was the cofounder for the War Through Other Stuff Society.

Ten Things I Can’t Do Without

1. My family, friends, and my brilliant partner, Tim
2. History in general, but particularly books/exhibitions/stories/discussions/cultural references to the American Civil War – I’ve been addicted to this history since I was eight years old, and it drives my research passions
3. Travel – particularly to America, Europe, and New Zealand
4. The Welsh National Rugby Team
5. Bruce Springsteen
6. My two local rugby teams – the Ospreys (rugby union) and Warrington Wolves (rugby league)
7. Philadelphia – my one-time American home city (I lived there for a year during my undergraduate days)
8. Chocolate
9. My wok – I love cooking stir-fry meals in particular (as a big foodie, I also can’t do without any good food)
10. The smell of wood smoke – especially on long country walks in the winter or when you walk into old pubs