Catherine Strong has a PhD in Sociology from the Australian National University Her thesis looked at grunge music and collective memory, and has since been published as Grunge: Music and Memory with Ashgate (2011). She has published on the gendered aspects of popular culture, and has also done research on the women's movement in Australia. Her current research is on cultural memory and gender in Australian popular music. She is currently the Chair of the Australia-New Zealand branch of IASPM. Her most recent book is the edited collection Death and the Rock Star (with Barbara Lebrun, Ashgate 2015.).