Rate My Professor Cate Carter

Dr Cate Carter is a scholar in culture and identity, serving as an Officer in the Australian Army and affiliated with the University of Adelaide in the School of Society and Culture, College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences. She holds a PhD in Military Sociology from Deakin University, completed in 2020 with her thesis titled ‘Cultural Characteristics of the Australian Civil-Military Relationship’. Her academic career includes roles as Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of South Australia, Army Reserve researcher at the Australian Army Research Centre, and Composer-in-Residence at St Paul's Anglican Church, Ipswich. Carter co-founded the Military Organisation and Culture Studies research group with Brad West and is a member of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. From 2017 to 2020, she served as Managing Editor of the Australian Army Journal and co-founded the ADF Creative Arts Association.

Carter's research focuses on military sociology, civil-military relations, and cultural aspects of military identity, offering antipodean perspectives. Key publications include co-editing The New Australian Military Sociology: Antipodean Perspectives (Berghahn Books, 2024) with Brad West, where she contributed the introduction 'Antipodean Insights into Civil-Military Relations', a chapter titled 'Standing in the Picture: Reflexive Practice in Australian Military Research', and the conclusion 'Antipodean Military Sociology and the Future of Civil-Military Relations Analysis: The Promise of Civil Sphere Theory'. She also edited Standing in the Picture: Autoethnographic Practice in Australian Military Research (Berghahn Books, 2024). Earlier, in 2021, she authored 'Recasting the Warrior: The Victoria Cross for Australia and Contemporary Civil-Military Relations' in Militarization and the Global Rise of Paramilitary Culture: Post-Heroic Reimaginings of the Warrior (Springer). Through her scholarly contributions, Carter bridges military practice and sociological inquiry in the Australian context.