Dr Catherine Walsh

(she/her)

BSc (SFX), BEd (UNB), MA (MUN), PhD (GUL)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

I am the Principal Investigator for a project that identifies experts in water resource management as evidence-partners for economic policymakers in South Africa. 

The northern Province of Limpopo makes policy for both its mining sector (the biggest contributor to GDP), and agriculture (the largest employer and source of food security). But mining and agriculture place significant and competitive demands upon increasingly scarce water resources, which the Province does not manage directly. The project aims to strengthen the quality of evidence about water for mining and agriculture policymaking in Limpopo.  It first asks how well past evidence has matched the needs and in-house capacities of economic policymakers. It then uses characteristics of useable evidence to explore future evidence-partnerships with: national and municipal governments, international regulators, local scientists, mining companies, commercial farms, smallholders, and traditional authorities.

This work is in collaboration with Dr. Metji Makgoba at the University of Limpopo and is funded by the British Academy.

My past research has been about:

• financialization 
• financial elites and their discourses of fiscal expertise
• the public construction of environmental activism
• the UK Treasury 
• the UK Office for Budget Responsibility

Teaching

I lead and lecture two undergraduate modules that I also developed.  In the second year, a module about political communication which primarily focuses on British politics. And in the final year a module about financial markets. 

I also support undergraduate and masters' students in their dissertations.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Biography

Before joining JOMEC I spent three years at Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.

I was awarded my doctorate by the University of London for research undertaken within the Department of Media & Communications at Goldsmiths' College. 

I hold three other degrees from Canadian universities: MA Religious Studies (MUN); BEd Secondary (UNB); and BSc Chemistry (StFX).

Supervisions

I welcome prospective PhD students interested in any of:

• elite political communication
• economic discourses
• environmental discourses
• technocratic discourses
• financialization
• fiscal instititutions

Past projects

I have been the primary supervisor for two students who successfully passed their viva voce:

• Dr. Metji Makgoba, who studied discourses of Black Economic Empowerment in the South African mining sector.  He is now an Associate Professor at the University of Limpopo, South Africa.
• Dr. Yuhuang Lyu who studied underpricing in inital public offerings and the Chinese financial press.  She is now working at the Yangtze Normal University in Chongqing, China.

Engagement

Walsh, C (2014) "The Treasury We Choose."  Fabian Review. 126 (2), pp. 8-9.

Walsh, C. (2021) "How independent is the OBR, and why does it matter?" Perspectives in UK Economic Policy Institutions. Manchester Centre for Economic Policy, Manchester Metropolitan University, p. 23-25.