Kata was born in Kolozsvár (Klausenburg), Romania, and graduated from Babes Bolyai University. She received her PhD in 2006 in contemporary Jewish studies from the department of Ethnology at Budapest's Eötvös Lóránd University. As a PhD student she studied and conducted field work in Israel, Spain, and South Africa. Her publications include the co-authored book "Dialogues on Teaching Critical Literature" (2003), and the single-authored books "Tradition, Memory, Identity. The Foundation Myth of Exodus" (2005), and "Visszatérők a tradícióhoz Return to the Tradition" (2009). The latter book describes the return of the Hungarian Jews to the Jewish tradition and the reconstruction of their Jewish identity after the fall of communism. Kata has also published several articles in medieval literature, ethnology and cultural anthropology, and urban studies. Currently she is a professor at Eötvös Lóránd University in Budapest.