Outstanding Alum: Posthumous Recognition
Katharina “Kat” Lindner was a gifted film and gender scholar, published author, and highly accomplished athlete. Lindner was a lecturer in film and media and a member of the Centre for Gender & Feminist Studies at the University of Stirling, UK. Her research interests were interdisciplinary and included gender and queer theory; feminist film and cultural criticism; question of identity, subjectivity, and embodiment; and film phenomenology, as well as media and sport. In 2017, Lindner published her book Film Bodies: Queer Feminist Encounters with Gender and Sexuality in Cinema, which takes existing debates into new directions and integrates queer and feminist theory with film phenomenology, exploring the female body’s presence in a range of genres including dance, sports, and queer cinema.
Before her career in academia, Lindner was a key player for Glasgow City FC. She joined the team in 2005 while working on her doctorate at Glasgow University. Lindner scored 128 goals—fourth highest in the club’s history—and made 173 appearances with the team, setting the record for the number of appearances in European competitions for a Scottish club. Lindner was a two-time Player of the Year for the club. During her time on the team, Glasgow City FC became a regular in the women’s Champions League, winning five Premier League titles, two Scottish Cups, and two League Cups. After retiring, she joined the team’s coaching staff.
Lindner was a board member for Scottish Women’s Football and served as the Policy Director from 2014–16, in which she oversaw improvements to the game, including the restructuring of the Scottish Women’s Premier League for the 2016 season. In her honor, Scottish Women’s Football introduced The Kat Lindner Award for Outstanding Athletic & Academic Achievement.
As a UHart student, Lindner was a star player for the women’s soccer team from 1999 to 2003 and was inducted into the Alumni Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014. She scored 26 goals, made 30 assists (third all-time), and had 82 shots on goal. She is tied for the program’s all-time record with 87 starts and games played. Her leadership as a three-time captain helped the Hawks to three NCAA tournament appearances. In 2000, she was selected as an NSCAA First Team All-American.
Lindner also performed well academically, and as a senior, received a Regents’ Honor Award and, after posting a perfect a 4.0 GPA, was named Outstanding Student-Athlete. Additionally, she was selected as the College Sports Information Directors of America (COSIDA) Academic All-American of the Year in 2002, a COSIDA Academic All-American in 2001 and 2002, and the America East Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2002. Lindner received her bachelor’s in communication and psychology in 2003 and her master’s in communication in 2005 from the College of Arts and Sciences—both times graduating summa cum laude and with University honors. She later received a doctorate in film studies from Glasgow University.
Lindner died on Feb. 2, 2019. She is survived by her partner of 16 years, Laura Montgomery, a founder of Glasgow City FC, and current club manager for the team.