Holly is a non-indigenous Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Australian Studies. Holly teaches and researches within the areas of Indigenous media studies, critical race and whiteness studies, communications and new media, feminist media studies, and education and the knowledge economy. Holly completed a doctoral thesis in Cultural Studies in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University in 2009. Her doctoral thesis demonstrated how whiteness and Christianity framed Australian national identity in the public policy and rhetoric of the Howard government (1996-2006). The effect of this political and discursive framing was the legitimisation of Australia as a white possession and the negation of Indigenous sovereignty. Holly has taught at a number of universities in Australia including the University of Technology, Sydney, Macquarie University, and the Australian Catholic University.

Holly's area of research expertise is focused on representations of marginalised communities in news and other media, with a particular emphasis on Indigeneity, ethnicity, and religion. Her work shows how media affects the experience of ethnicity, religion, and sexuality for minority communities and contributes to misrepresentations and social inequality. Media can also play a socially transformative role through opportunities for self-representation and diversity of media participation. She has published research on the ways minority religious groups are affected by media and political debates about Indigenous sovereignty, citizenship, gender equality, and religious freedom. In herwork on secularism, law, and religion, she shows how the influence of Christianity on secular law has important implications for the marginalisation of Indigenous claims to sovereignty. Recognising secular law as religiously based reveals how Indigenous social justice claims are not negotiated through neutral institutional frameworks. She has also published work on pedagogy and higher education policies. Her recent research has examined the role of digital infrastructure in facilitating community expressions of belonging, Indigenist forms of digital practice, and the digital divide.