Kate Hunter

Kathryn McKerral Hunter is an Australian–New Zealand academic historian, and is a full professor at the Victoria University of Wellington, specialising in the 19th and 20th century history of New Zealand and Australia, with a particular focus on the social history of the First World War, and the history of hunting in New Zealand. From 2017 until 2022 she was the director of the Stout Centre for New Zealand Studies.

Academic career
Hunter completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a PhD titled Dutiful daughters and 'father's right-hand man': single white women in rural Victoria, 1880s to the 1920s at the University of Melbourne. Hunter moved to New Zealand in 1995, and joined the faculty of Victoria University of Wellington. She was the Director of the Stout Centre for New Zealand Studies from 2017 to 2022, and has been Head of the History Programme. Hunter was appointed as a full professor in 2020. Hunter is an Honorary Research Associate at Te Papa Tongarewa.

Hunter is interested in gender and race relations, and has written or co-authored books on the social history of the First World War, hunting in New Zealand, and women on Australian family farms. Her interest in hunting arose due to marrying a hunter, and finding it confronting to encounter people with guns in New Zealand national parks, a situation that would not happen in Australia. She describes hunting as central to the culture and colonisation of New Zealand. She has also researched Middle Eastern cultural influences in Australasia. In her inaugural professorial lecture, delivered in 2023, she reflected on the craft of being a historian, and how seemingly trivial pieces of information could direct historical enquiry.

Authored and co-authored books

 * Kate Hunter and Kirstie Ross. (2014) Holding on to Home: New Zealand Stories and Objects of the First World War. Te Papa Press. ISBN 9780987668851
 * Kathryn M. Hunter. (2009) Hunting: A New Zealand History. Random House, Auckland, New Zealand ISBN 9781869791544
 * Kathryn M. Hunter. (2004) Father’s Right-Hand Man: Women on Australia’s Family Farms, 1880s to the 1920s. Australian Scholarly Pub. ISBN 9781740970303