Rate My Professor Kirsten Holmes

Professor Kirsten Holmes is a Professor in the School of Management and Marketing within the Faculty of Business and Law at Curtin University. She earned her PhD from the University of Leeds in 2003, MA from Nottingham Trent University in 1996, and BA (Hons) from the University of Durham in 1994. An internationally recognised expert, her research focuses on volunteering, particularly in events, leisure, sport, and tourism contexts, as well as event and festival sustainability. She has conducted research projects across 15 countries and regularly collaborates with industry, government, and the not-for-profit sector.

Holmes joined Curtin University in 2007 as a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Management and has advanced through various teaching, research, and leadership roles across three schools. She served as Dean of Research for the Faculty of Business and Law for three years, implementing initiatives to support staff at all levels. Additional roles include Co-Director of the Tourism Research Cluster, member of the Faculty Research and Development Committee since 2010, and First Vice Chair of the Council for Australasian University Tourism and Hospitality Education. Prior appointments include Lecturer at the University of Surrey from 2005 to 2007 and positions at the University of Sheffield. Her work has attracted funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Government's Office for Learning and Teaching, the UK Government, and the International Olympic Committee. Holmes has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals and contributed to books including Managing Volunteers in Tourism and The Routledge Handbook of Volunteering in Events, Sport and Tourism. Recent publications feature Myths and Misconceptions About University Student Volunteering (2022) and Growing the Volunteer Pool: Identifying Non-Volunteers Most Likely to Volunteer (2026). In 2024, her research on non-volunteers won an international prize for contributions to volunteering research.