The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia has elected 43 outstanding social scientists as Fellows in 2026, recognising their exceptional contributions to research, policy, public life and the advancement of knowledge that benefits Australian society. The newly elected Fellows represent a diverse range of disciplines, including law, economics, sociology, psychology and education. Collectively, their…
Emeritus Professor Bruce Scates Affiliation: The Australian National University Discipline: History, heritage and archaeology Year elected: 2014 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? My work centres on painful pasts and how we live today with their legacies. As a social and cultural historian, I delve into the archives to reveal stories of resilience and resistance, and seek to empower those often displaced…
Dr Linda Botterill Affiliation: UNSW Discipline: Political Science Year elected: 2015 What initially drew you to your field of study? I spent nearly 15 years in policy practice – in the APS, Ministerial offices, and industry associations – and I wanted to research why policies often fail to achieve their goals. I was particularly interested in the failure of a program, the Farm…
Professor Kim Dovey Affiliation: University of Melbourne Discipline: Built Environment & Design Year elected: 2022 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? I study cities at multiple scales from the sidewalk to the metropolis, but mostly I am interested in urbanity – the intensive, creative and productive buzz of urban life, which is the…
Emeritus Professor Cheryl Dissanayake AM FINSAR FASSAAffiliation: Olga Tennison Autism Research CentreDiscipline: PsychologyYear elected: 2022 What initially drew you to your field of study? A film, seen on daytime TV during a semester or term break while I was a student, that profiled a young autistic child, motivated my interest in autism; this field engaged…
Scientia Professor of Economics Richard Holden Affiliation: UNSW Discipline: Economics Year elected: 2016 What initially drew you to your field of study? I loved that economics provides rigorous tools to help address some of society’s most pressing challenges. How would you describe your work at a dinner party? I work on cognitive economics which is…
Laureate Professor of Education Jenny Gore AM Affiliation: The University of Newcastle Discipline: Education Year elected: 2023 What initially drew you to your field of study? I come from a family where teaching was common, especially among the women. Education was always around me. My deeper interests—how to get better outcomes for teachers and students,…
Professor Michelle Arrow Affiliation: Macquarie University Discipline: History, heritage and archaeology Year elected: 2023 What initially drew you to your field of study? I think I first became interested in history from observing the ways that my grandparents were profoundly shaped by their experiences during the Great Depression: they saved string and bits of brown paper and never…
Professor Rob RavenAffiliation: Sustainability Transitions Lab, Monash UniversityDiscipline: Human geographyYear elected: 2024 What initially drew you to your field of study? When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I was attracted to problem solving and finding solutions by tearing apart broken televisions or developing code on our first personal computer for automated solving of word-searching puzzles. While I no longer…
Professor Quentin Grafton Affiliation: Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Australian National University Year elected: 2013 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? I guess I would say: “I’m researcher and economist who works in the area of the environment with focus on water and how the environment connects to people…
Top row (L to R): Professor Michael Berk AO FASSA FAHMS, Professor Justin Kenardy AO FASSA & Professor Mike Young AO FASSAMiddle row: Professor Rosemary Rayfuse AM FASSA , Professor Chandra Athukorala AM FASSA & Professor Steve Zubrick AM FASSA FAHMSBottom row: Professor Colin MacLeod AM FASSA, Professor Louise Chappell AM FASSA & Professor Greg…
The Academy of the Social Sciences congratulates the inaugural commissioners appointed to the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, including Fellow Dr Stephen Duckett FASSA. Australia’s tertiary education sector equips our future workforce with the professional and technical for a range of careers and drive research and innovation. More than a simple qualification and route to employment,…
What initially drew you to your field of study? I’ve long been drawn to the stories Australia doesn’t always tell about itself—histories of colonisation, race relations, and cross-cultural encounters that sit just beneath the surface of national narratives. Like many non-Indigenous Australians, these histories are not abstract, but difficult, powerful and embodied and are threaded though my own family story too. Early…
Pictured above: Kiesha Wear (left), Coordinator of Data Sovereignty at Wungening Aboriginal Corporation and Distinguished Professor Emerita Maggie Walter FASSA at the 2025 Global Indigenous Data Sovereignty (GIDSov) Conference. (Image credit: Wolflab Media) For decades, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been among the most counted populations in Australia, and among the least heard. Governments…
Professor Adam Possamai Affiliation: Western Sydney University Discipline: Sociology Year elected: 2023 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? As everyone has an opinion about religion, being a believer, ex-believer, atheist, sceptic or someone who grew up with a religion, I always find it challenging to speak about my research. I have found that…
Professor Emerita Joan Beaumont Affiliation: Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University Discipline: History, heritage and archaeology Year elected: 1997 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? Historians of the two world wars and Australia’s role in these. What role do the social sciences play in your work? I draw…
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…