South Australian-born, Stephanie completed an Honours degree in History at Flinders in 1970. In the years before returning for post-graduate study, her employment record largely focused on History: tutoring at Adelaide and Flinders and teaching at the University of the South Pacific, later UniSA, and in between teaching senior secondary classes. As part of the latter role she was Chief Examiner in Year 12 Modern World History for seven years during the 1990s. Subsequently. She worked for five years with Indigenous students in a bridging Programme at Wilto Yerlo, University of Adelaide. This was followed by a part time MA looking at the Irish in the Clare Valley from 1841 to 1871, years when this region was the most Irish area of the colony. Her PhD examined Irish Australian loyalty during times of imperial crisis through the lens of the Irish Catholic press. Publications which followed explored aspects relating to World War One, specifically the loyalty issues following the Easter Rising of 1916, and parallels between the wartime treatment of German and Irish Australians. She was one of the editors of the 2019 publication, Irish South Australia: new histories and insights.

Irish-Australian History, particularly South Australian

Australian interaction in the Irish diaspora

The role of women in the Irish-Australian community

The place and treatment of ‘outsider’ groups in Australian history

The history of the religious press in Australia