The Academy of the Social Sciences welcomes you to join Professor Marcia Langton AO for the inaugural Rechnitz Memorial Lecture. As an Indigenous woman and anthropologist entangled in Australian life and scholarship, I have examined the challenges to distinctive Aboriginal ways of being and knowing. In a world turning to nativist fundamentalism and racism in the…
In this issue, the Academy brings the ‘social’ to National Science Week, plus not-to-be-missed upcoming events and opportunities for international collaboration. View the July 2026 newsletter.
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…
Re-imagining Risk and Disruption: The Nature of Complex Unbounded Problems This timely book traces the common attributes of slow and fast-moving disruptions and disasters, from climate change and pandemics to increasingly crowded near-Earth space and nuclear emergencies. It shows how these challenges form, coalesce and cross boundaries, and recommends preventative policies and action.
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…
Professor Kathy Bowrey Affiliation: UNSW Law & Justice Discipline: Law and legal studies Year elected: 2022 What initially drew you to your field of study? I had a law degree and also friends and flat mates who were artists making experimental digital music, artworks and videos for crushingly small audiences of fellow travellers. Lawyers kept telling them they had…
The 2024-2027 Australia–France Indo-Pacific Studies Program (AFIPS) is a flagship initiative delivered by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, with support from the Australian Government (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade). Anchored in the shared strategic commitment to advancing peace, resilience, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, the program supports interdisciplinary, policy-relevant social science research…
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 in Australia made a submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. The Academy welcomes the opportunity to engage with the Royal Commission. The antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi must be a turning point in Australian public life, a moment of acute national reckoning that prompts deep…
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia made a submission to the Education and Employment References Committee inquiry into Australian university graduates. The Academy welcomes the committee’s focus on graduate employment outcomes, which has important implications for productivity, public confidence in universities and student wellbeing. The inquiry was referred amid concerns about declining Australian…
In this issue, the Academy is on the hunt for a new CEO, congratulations are in order for many Fellows, mark your calendars with upcoming events and consider a tax-time donation to support the Academy’s work. View the June 2026 newsletter.
Playing on the Edge: Sport, Society and Culture in Asia and Oceania Contemporary global sport is in constant, sometimes bewildering flux. This book goes beyond orthodox globalisation theory, deploying the metaphor of ‘playing on the edge’ in analysing the dynamic process of making and remaking sport culture in Asia and Oceania. Beyond sport’s traditionally dominant…
Professor Emerita Billie Giles-Corti Affiliation: RMIT Centre for Urban Research Discipline: Built environment and design Year elected: 2023 How would you describe your work at a dinner party? My research is about how to design cities to make people healthy. What role do the social sciences play in your work? The social sciences have underpinned…
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…
A Research Agenda for Critical LiteraciesChallenges and Possibilities in Troubling Times Edited by Hilary Janks, Emerita Professor, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, Barbara Comber, Emerita Professor, Adelaide University, Australia and Vivian Vasquez, Distinguished Professor, American University, USA This cutting-edge Research Agenda offers a way forward for critical literacies that takes into account current conditions of…
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…
Australians are being squeezed from all sides, through resurgent inflation, supply chain effects from the Middle East war and rising interest rates. This Flash Forum will bring together experts from academia and business to discuss monetary and fiscal policy options, supply chain disruptions to oil and gas markets and how this will affect vulnerable sections…
The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia is seeking a Chief Executive Officer of a nationally significant institution at a time when social science has never been more critical to Australia’s prosperity, resilience, and policy direction. Why this role? This is a rare opportunity to partner with the President and Board to deliver the…
A series of reports prepared by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering for Safe Work Australia maps the national work health and safety (WHS) and workers’ compensation research landscape. The project used an innovative research methodology, combining a taxonomy based scoping review, case study…
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…
Over the past decade in Australia, policy and practice efforts to address all forms ofgendered violence, including domestic and family violence (DFV), have acceleratedregarding the nature, prevalence, impacts and responses. DFV has wide-ranging health,social and economic impacts for victim-survivors, which are exacerbated by structuralinequalities related to gender as well as experiences of intergenerational trauma, race…
Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) is the native title representative body for thePilbara, Murchison and Gascoyne regions in Western Australia. YMAC anthropologists andarchaeologists are heavily involved in applied heritage activities including cultural heritagesurveys, native title research, cultural mapping projects for Prescribed Bodies Corporate(PBCs), collaboration with Indigenous ranger groups, traditional ecological knowledgeprograms, and social impact assessments.…