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Katelyn Barney is an Associate Professor in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit and affiliated with the School of Music. Katelyn is also Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Principal Practitioner in the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation. Her teaching has been recognised through a UQ Teaching Excellence Award with her colleague Professor Tracey Bunda for their innovative and inclusive co-teaching approach, developing the podcast Indigenising Curriculum in Practice and embedding storying in teaching.

In 2025 she is co-leading a number of projects with Indigenous colleagues including exploring staff and student perspectives of Indigenised curriculum with Professor Tracey Bunda and examining the role of music in sustaining Indigenous languages with Professor Anita Heiss and Deline Briscoe. Katelyn is also working with Professor Bronwyn Fredericks and colleagues across three universities to explore the links between pathway programs and university completion which builds on their previous ACSES-funded project on improving completion rates for Indigenous tertiary students.

Her latest edited book Musical Collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous People in Australia: Exchanges in the Third Space received the Ellen Koskoff Edited Volume Prize. She has previously held an Equity Fellowship with the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (formerly NCSEHE) and has developed a range of resources on evaluating programs for Indigenous students. She is an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow and also the Managing Editor of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education.

As a music-maker and language revivalist from the south coast Noongar region of Western Australia, I am interested in the connections between song, language, and landscapes. My work intersects with applied linguistics, ecomusicology, Australian studies, and Indigenous studies.

I am lead Chief Investigator for ARC DI project 'Restoring on-Country Performance' and a Chief Investigator for ARC LIEF project 'Nyingarn: A platform for primary sources in Australian Indigenous languages', ARC DI project 'The role of First Nations’ music as a determinant of health', and ARC Linkage project 'Life After Digitisation: Future-Proofing WA's Vulnerable Cultural Heritage'.

After working as an ESL and music teacher, I helped establish the major in Indigenous Knowledge at the University of Western Australia, where I completed a PhD in Noongar song. At the University of Sydney I co-developed the major in contemporary music for Sydney Conservatorium of Music, before returning to Western Australia at Edith Cowan University to bolster humanities research in my home state. Recent arts-language projects I have collaborated on include a mainstage production of Shakespeare's Macbeth in Noongar (Hecate 2020), a Bruce Lee film dubbed in Noongar (Fist of Fury Noongar Daa 2021), and the multi-sensory ‘Noongar Wonderland’ performance installation in Perth Festival 2022.

I serve as Deputy Chair of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and received the 2020 Barrett Award for Australian Studies.