Affiliation: University of MelbourneDiscipline: History, heritage and archaeologyYear elected: 2023 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? I am interested in memory activism or how different actors mobilise the past for different ends especially for the purposes of challenging harmful historical discourses and achieving meaningful social change. What initially drew you to your field…
*Distinguished Professor Bessant is pictured above with her dog, Frankie. Frankie’s social science qualifications are not listed here, but can be supplied upon request. Affiliation: RMIT School of Global, Urban and Social StudiesDiscipline: SociologyYear elected: 2024 What initially drew you to your field of study? I was first drawn to youth studies and to related…
Affiliation: UNSW Law & JusticeDiscipline: Law and Legal StudiesYear elected: 2023 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? If I was at a dinner party right now, I’d tell people that I focus on the law of the sea and that’s concerned with laws between different countries over maritime issues. So I look at the closing of the Strait of…
Affiliation: Monash UniversityDiscipline: Health SciencesYear elected: 2023 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? I help systems put evidence into action with communities, especially those most impacted by disadvantage, by centring lived experience and moving beyond Western, Eurocentric, and colonised assumptions to achieve fair and equitable health and wellbeing across the lifespan. What role do the…
Affiliation: Monash UniversityDiscipline: Social WorkYear elected: 2023 What initially drew you to your field of study? Since 1999, I have specialized in examining the experiences of young adults who grew up in forms of out-of-home care (i.e. foster, kinship or residential group home care) often called care leavers or care experienced young people. My initial…
Above: Professor Ford (left) pictured with a Cambodian labour activist. Professor Michele Ford Affiliation: Arts and Social Sciences – University of SydneyDiscipline: SociologyYear elected: 2022 What initially drew you to your field of study? Serendipity. I didn’t want to do Law or Medicine, so took on an Engineering/Arts double degree, which brought me from regional Queensland to…
Professor Nicola ReavleyAffiliation: The Centre for Mental Health, University of MelbourneDiscipline: Public HealthYear elected: 2024 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? I study public knowledge and attitudes to mental health and illness and how we can shift those in beneficial ways. What initially drew you to your field of study?My field…
Professor Kalpana Ram Affiliation: Australian National UniversityDiscipline: AnthropologyYear elected: 2021 What initially drew you to your field of study? Many of my answers about intellectual trajectory have their roots in my life journeys between India and Australia. I arrived in Sydney in 1971 from Delhi at the age of fourteen because of my father’s government…
What could be more important than understanding the social world? Every plan, every policy, every technical solution ultimately has to operate within society. For me, social sciences are everything.
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia was proud to officially launch Australia’s War History, the latest educational resource from the Seriously Social school program, at the historic Anzac Memorial in Sydney on Monday 9 March. This new resource has been designed to support teaching and learning about Australia’s wartime experiences and their ongoing…
I like to think about the ways in which law ought to respond to technological change.
Housing affordability…the effects of Global Climate Change…high national debt…We need to come up with solutions and a way forward in dealing with these challenges being faced by a generation of people for the first time.
I believe that convergence science approaches are necessary to solve the complex issues of the non-communicable and particularly mental health disorders… The social sciences are a keystone approach in this matrix.
Social scientists know how the brain works and understand the ins and outs of group dynamics. We should use that in a much broader context. Too often we preach to the converted.
Social scientists need to be loud and proud about their capacity to provide unique contextualised insights into the ways in which digital technology is reshaping everyday education.
I am interested in building inter-generational, international networks of scholars and front-line educators designing and enacting literacy curriculum for social and environmental justice. I desperately want good things – ethical practices – to go viral. That’s my current obsession.
Libraries and archives, along with galleries and museums – and their role in the preservation of our national heritage -sit at the heart of a democratic society. They need to be celebrated, funded, and made accessible to all.
I get so much pleasure from helping others…develop their thinking. At a time when it can feel that thinking is under threat…the art of building concepts is something that we should cherish and protect as social scientists.
My work on increasing the sustainability and resilience of coral reef fisheries is motivated by a love of problem solving… the joy I get from bringing together different disciplines to look at a common issues, and the strong desire to leave the planet in a better state for my two boys.
I am passionate about exploring the role of Indigenous business in facilitating self-determination.
My career has largely focussed on the use and production of quality information and insights, drawing upon the best available evidence.
I try to focus at the intersection between things that need doing and things that I’m good at; most of these are in the cultural dimensions of environmental issues, including climate change.
Professor Rosemary Sheehan Affiliation: Monash UniversityDiscipline: Social workYear elected: 2021 What initially drew you to your field of study? My professional qualification is as a social worker, and I was influenced by growing up in Canberra at a time when there was considerable migration, especially men arriving after working on the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric…
My research focuses on how to obtain accurate and detailed information from people about events to assist decision-making.