Associate Professor Kati Tonkin, SFHEA

Kati is an Associate Professor of German Studies and History and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She studied in Germany and Austria before completing her PhD in German and European Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her research focuses on the Jewish Austrian writer Joseph Roth and the student experience of flipped and online learning in higher education. She co-founded a university-wide Community of Practice dedicated to active learning and the flipped classroom.

Chair, Board of Studies (Society and Culture)

Academic Board – elected academic staff member

Academic Council – elected member

Appeals Committee – elected member

Academic Board Legislative Committee – elected member

Education Committee – ex officio member

University Curriculum Committee – ex officio member 

University Learning and Teaching Committee – ex officio member

Co-Chair, Student Achievement Working Party

Academic Coordinator, Stuttgart Exchange Program

Coordinator, Bachelor of Modern Languages

Coordinator, Minor in German

In German Studies Kati is responsible for the large entry-level unit German Beginners 1 (GRMN1401). This unit is taught in a blended mode, with short video modules preparing students for three hours of language classes where the emphasis is on active learning. She also coordinates and teaches a unit focused on written and oral competency at the intermediate level (GRMN2002).

In the History program Kati teaches two units in European intellectual and cultural history: Civilisation and Barbarism in European Culture (HIST2202); and Imagining the Nation in European Culture (HIST3302).

Kati is a leader in teaching innovation. She piloted the use of Smart Sparrow, an adaptive e-learning platform, to replace lectures in HIST2202 Civilisation and Barbarism, and most recently has been involved in a pilot of the assessment platform Cadmus. In 2019 she co-founded a university-wide Community of Practice focused on Active Learning and the Flipped Classroom.

Kati supervises honours and postgraduate students and currently has four PhD students working on topics in European history and literature.

"It forces you to engage": Adaptive learning in a History class (with Martin Forsey, Sara Page and Graham Brown)

Vergangenheitsbewältigung in German electronic music of the 1970s (with Christopher Tonkin)

The novels and journalism of Joseph Roth

Student perceptions of the flipped classroom in higher education

Student mobility and intercultural literacy

Contemporary European film

European integration

World Universities Network Grant (with Martin Forsey and international partners): University Students in the Time of Corona (2020)

Centre for Education Futures Grant (with Martin Forsey and Melinda Hodkiewicz) (2016)

UWA Teaching Fellowship (2012)

DEEWR Short-Term Mobility Program Staff Subsidy (2011)

UWA Research Grant Scheme Award (2007)

School of Humanities and Social Sciences UWA Publications Grant (2007)

Early Career Academic Researchers Travel Grant, UWA (2007)

Österreich-Stipendium: Austrian Academic Exchange Service (ÖAD) Fellowship, Vienna (2001-02)

Fay Gale Fellowship, UWA (2001)

English (native)

German (near-native)

French (reading)

I served as Chair of the School Board at North Perth Primary School for 6 years (2014-2019) and currently sit on the School Board of Mount Lawley Senior High School as a Community Representative (2020–).