Catherine Hamm

Catherine Hamm is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, where she contributes to the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. A settler to the Kulin Nation, she holds a Doctor of Education from the University of Melbourne, focused on early childhood education and teaching. Her academic career previously included a position as senior lecturer in the School of Education at La Trobe University. Dr. Hamm's teaching and post-qualitative research foreground First Nations worldviews and engage with critical perspectives of early childhood studies. Her expertise lies in post-developmental theories, the Anthropocene, place-based pedagogies, climate justice, and fostering ethical relations with more-than-human worlds in early childhood contexts.

Dr. Hamm co-leads the Learning with Place project, which evolved from Out and About: Generating New Pedagogies for the Anthropocene, a qualitative initiative supporting children and educators in building relationships with local places, flora, fauna, landforms, waterways, and other elements to promote climate action. The project views children as citizens of the now and has received University of Melbourne Proof of Concept Funding in 2023 for commercialization efforts, including the children's television series Walking with Lilly (pilot in collaboration with the Victorian College of the Arts, pitch planned for 2025), related products such as games, books, and apps, and the Playing with Place subscription service for outdoor education. She also serves as co-principal investigator on Elders as Teachers of Environmental Knowledge: Centering Climate Justice within Land and Country Education, funded by the International Network of Educational Institutions with 35,000 USD for 2025-2026, in collaboration with A/Prof Jennifer Brant from the University of Toronto. This project extends prior work on fostering ethical relations and develops curriculum guides foregrounding First Nations knowledges through storywork and place-based engagements. Key publications include Modest witness(ing) and lively stories: Paying attention to matters of concern in early childhood (Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 2017), Place, matters of concern, and pedagogy: Making impactful connections with our planet (Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 2017), Lively emu dialogues: Activating feminist common worlding pedagogies (Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 2022), Facetiming common worlds: Exchanging digital place stories and crafting pedagogical contact zones (Children's Geographies, 2020), and Learning with place as a catalyst for action (Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 2023). Her scholarship has garnered over 578 citations on Google Scholar, influencing pedagogical practices and teacher education programs responsive to environmental and social justice concerns.

Professional Email: catherine.hamm@unimelb.edu.au