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 work has helped to deepen understanding of some of the most pressing challenges facing Australia and the world.
Each year, the Academy elects Fellows who have demonstrated excellence and distinction in the social sciences. Fellowship is one of the highest honours in the field, recognising scholars whose research and leadership have made a significant contribution to public understanding, policy development and social progress.
Academy President Professor Kate Darian-Smith said the 2026 cohort exemplifies the vital role of social science research in addressing complex challenges and building a more informed, equitable and prosperous society.
“From strengthening democratic institutions and improving public health outcomes to advancing economic opportunity and environmental sustainability, their work demonstrates the power of social science research to create positive change.”
Election to the Academy’s Fellowship follows a rigorous, peer-reviewed process that recognises outstanding achievement and impact.
The Academy now comprises 792 Fellows, bringing together Australia’s leading social science researchers and practitioners to advance evidence-based solutions to the challenges facing society.
Photos of all new Fellows available here:
New Fellow profiles are available here.
Media contact: Vanessa Barratt, Communications Director, 0450 018 752, vanessa.barratt@socialsciences.org.au
The newly elected Fellows for 2026 are listed below by state:
Honorary Fellow of the Academy
Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC
Ms Sam Mostyn AC was sworn in as Australia’s 28th Governor-General on 1 July 2024. A businesswoman and community leader, Ms Mostyn is known for her exceptional service to the Australian community. She has a long history in executive and governance roles across diverse sectors, including business, sport, climate change, the arts, policy and not-for-profit.
Australian Capital Territory
Professor Tegan Cruwys
Psychology
Australian National University
Professor Tegan Cruwys has been instrumental to advancing the impact of the social sciences within health research, health practice, and health policy. Her research has contributed to the growing perception that social science is essential to improving health and health equity. Professor Cruwys is recognised globally for her leadership of the social identity approach to health, colloquially called “the social cure” after her co-authored book The New Psychology of Health: Unlocking the Social Cure.
Professor Evan Kidd
Linguistics
Australian National University
Professor Evan Kidd is a cognitive scientist specialising in language and cognition. His research emphasises the importance of understanding how variability in language learners and users (e.g., genetic, cognitive, environmental) and variability across languages contribute to language acquisition, representation, and use. He has made major contributions to the study of first language acquisition, adult first language processing, bilingual and second language acquisition and processing, and to the study of how language intersects with other socio-cognitive processes.
Honorary Professor Hugh Mackay
Psychology
Australian National University
Honorary Professor Hugh Mackay is a social psychologist and researcher who has spent more than sixty years studying Australian society, mainly through listening to thousands of Australians talking about their lives – their hopes, dreams, disappointments, frustrations and aspirations. His primary research vehicle was The Mackay Report – a program of quarterly qualitative research projects that was launched in 1979 and ran for twenty-five years, publishing over 100 reports on all aspects of Australian life.
Honorary Professor Stuart Ward
History
Australian National University
Honorary Professor Stuart Ward is professor of imperial and global history at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, specializing in imperial and global history. He is also an Honorary Professor of History in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University. His work has explored the modern history of colonial empires, particularly the unravelling of the European colonial order in the twentieth century. He has engaged with multiple colonial contexts, from Africa to South Asia, Canada, the Caribbean and especially Australia, where he has published two monographs on the impact of global decolonization on Australian public life (one of which was shortlisted for the Australian Prime Minister’s Prize for History).
New South Wales
Professor Lisa Adkins
Sociology
University of Sydney
Professor Lisa Adkins is an internationally distinguished sociologist, whose conceptual innovations and empirical research have shaped the direction of the discipline of sociology. Professor Adkins’ research focuses on the dynamics of post-industrial societies. She has expanded the tools of economic sociology to address societal problems, including the growth of the service economy, transformations to work, new forms of wealth generation, and the rise of finance in shaping everyday lives.
Professor Belinda Bennett
Law
University of Newcastle
Professor Belinda Bennett is a leading Australian scholar in health law and currently Head of School and Dean of the School of Law and Justice at the University of Newcastle. Her research engages with the challenges for law from global public health emergencies, and the legal, social and ethical implications of assisted reproduction, and genetics. Engagement with the legal and ethical issues related to rights has been an enduring theme in her research. Her research is interdisciplinary in nature, building on literature from a range of disciplines including history, medicine, and bioethics, to develop new insights for law and regulation.
Professor Gary Edmond
Law
UNSW
Professor Gary Edmond is an evidence scholar with a broad interest in evidence and proof. His primary research is focused on the relations between law and science, especially the forensic sciences and their use in criminal proceedings. This interest includes the historical emergence and reception of forensic sciences as well as the roles of forensic sciences in modern investigations, prosecutions and appeals. His research is interdisciplinary, often in collaboration with scientists, seeking to understand and assess the effectiveness of legal rules, procedures and personnel in the regulation and evaluation of scientific, technical and biomedical knowledges.
Professor Jessica Grisham
Psychology
UNSW
Professor Jessica Graham’s research asks why some people experience overwhelming obsessions and compulsions or an extreme tendency to save their possessions, and how we can treat these problems more effectively. For over a decade, she has partnered with Lifeline Harbour to Hawkesbury and their hoarding treatment program. With her collaborators she developed an enhanced treatment that adds distress tolerance training, based on findings about emotion dysregulation.
Professor Julia Horne
History
University of Sydney
Professor Julia Horne’s research asks a deceptively simple question: what role do universities play in society? Over the past two decades, she has sought to answer that question by bringing together history, politics and policy. In doing so, she has helped establish the History and Politics of Higher Education as a distinctive field of research in Australia and contributed to its development internationally. When she began this work, the history of universities was often written as the story of institutions and their leaders. Professor Horne’s research has helped shift attention to universities as social and political actors embedded in wider systems of government, culture and inequality.
Professor Neil Levy
Philosophy and psychology
Macquarie University
Professor Neil Levy’s research builds bridges between philosophy and psychology. His work aims, on the one hand, to utilise concepts and methods from philosophy to shed light on issues within psychology, and on the other to use findings in psychology to shed light on traditional issues within philosophy, such as the nature of consciousness, thought, and free will. His recent work has focused on misinformation. He uses philosophical analyses of ‘belief’ and ‘rationality’ to assess the degree to which (a) people genuinely believe some of the more bizarre misinformation they verbally endorse, such as conspiracy theories; and (b) whether such beliefs are rationally formed.
Professor Rosemary Lyster
Law
University of Sydney
Professor Rosemary Lyster is an international leader in Climate and Environmental Law, specialising in Climate Disaster Law. She has authored or co-authored several books including Multispecies Climate Justice, Disasters and Responsibility (2026), Climate Disaster Law (2018) and Climate Justice and Disaster Law (2015) and produced a significant and world-leading body of publications. Rosemary has held two Australian Research Council Discovery Project grants relating to building resilience in Australia’s electricity infrastructure in the face of extreme weather events and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) in Indonesia.
Professor Jill Newby
Psychology
UNSW
Professor Jill Newby is an expert in Clinical Psychology with expertise in digital mental health interventions for adults and young people with depression and anxiety. She is interested in developing accessible, affordable, effective and scalable psychological and lifestyle-based treatment programs for these common mental health conditions, testing their efficacy in clinical trials, and making them available to the community. She is particularly interested in how digital mental health and artificial intelligence tools can be used to deliver better, more personalised care for mental health.
Distinguished Professor Anthony Okely
Health Sciences
University of Wollongong
Distinguished Professor Anthony Okely’s research has advanced understanding of how physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep influence children’s health and development, and has translated that evidence into policy, practice and global public health action. Over more than 15 years, he has led the development and updating of Australian movement guidelines for children and young people, including the first Australian 24-hour movement guidelines for the early years. These guidelines have been incorporated into national policy and practice frameworks, including the National Quality Framework for early childhood education and care and the Australian Curriculum.
Professor Theunis Roux
Constitutional studies
UNSW
Professor Theunis Roux is an internationally recognised scholar of comparative constitutional studies whose research examines the relationship between constitutional law, politics and social change. His central contribution has been to develop a more sophisticated understanding of constitutions and courts as political and social institutions: institutions whose operation cannot be understood through legal doctrine alone, but must also be analysed in their historical, political and institutional contexts.
Professor Cameron Stewart
Law
University of Sydney
Professor Cameron Stewart is an internationally recognised scholar of health law and ethics. His research is focused on the interaction of normative systems, such as law, ethics and professional regulation, and their impact on the practice of health care. Professor Stewart’s work has had significant impact of the field of consent to healthcare decision-making and the regulatory systems that enable decisions to be made, especially when those systems interact with vulnerable populations including children, people living with cognitive decline, and people living with disabilities.
Professor Chris Wright
Human resources and industrial relations
University of Sydney
Professor Chris Wright’s research examines the institutional drivers of and barriers to the attainment of decent work. His expertise relates to the regulation of work, employment relationships and labour migration particularly in low-wage sectors. He uses his research expertise to analyse and inform public knowledge and debate and support the development of evidence-based public policy relating to work, labour markets and collective bargaining. Professor Wright’s research has impacted industrial relations and migration policy reform in Australia and internationally.
Queensland
Professor Andy Bennett
Sociology
Griffith University
Professor Andy Bennett has had a significant impact on thinking and practice nationally and internationally at the intersections of the sociology of youth and sociology of music, producing work that is discipline-defining over more than 25 years. As well as having a significant impact in sociology, Bennett’s work has influenced cognate fields such as ageing studies, cultural geography and cultural and media studies. Leading the paradigm shift to the post-subcultural turn, his work is widely valued for its innovation, originality and insight. The highly influential article ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes?’ (Sociology 1999) defined new directions in the field and remains a central scholarly resource for ongoing critical debates among the global community of youth culture scholars.
Professor Paula Brough
Psychology
Griffith University
Professor Paula Brough is an internationally recognised scholar in Occupational Health Psychology, whose pioneering research has significantly shaped the understanding of workplace wellbeing, occupational stress, and organisational practices across high-risk professions. Her current work on advancing understandings of workplace psychosocial safety has significant implications for Australian workers, employers, and regulators.
Professor Lynda Cheshire
Sociology
University of Queensland
Professor Lynda Cheshire’s research spans two main areas within the social sciences: the governmentality of community development, and the sociology of neighbouring and housing.
Her early work applied governmentality theory to rural community development, examining community self-help as a development strategy and its relationship to state power and local community life. Professor Chesire is Deputy Provost of the University of Queensland.
Emeritus Professor Jörgen Sandberg
Philosophy
University of Queensland
Emeritus Jörgen Sandberg is Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland Business School, Research Professor at Lund University, and Honorary Professor at the Australian National University and Warwick Business School. He is co-founder of the international Philosophy and Organization Studies (PHILOS) conference and serves on the editorial boards of Academy of Management Review, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Organization Studies. Over several decades, he has made sustained, internationally recognized contributions to management and organization studies and the broader social sciences, particularly in research methodology, competence and learning, theory and theory development, philosophy and organization studies, and bridging theory and business practice.
Distinguished Professor Ben White
Law
Queensland University of Technology
Distinguished Professor Ben White’s research in end-of-life decision-making, particularly voluntary assisted dying, has had significant impact on law, policy and practice. It has been adopted by parliaments, courts, tribunals and law reform commissions, influenced state and national policy, and prompted changes to clinical education in universities, hospitals and health departments. His work has contributed to voluntary assisted dying law reform in all Australian states and territories and internationally. His legal research is also publicly available through the End of Life Law in Australia website, which provides accessible information about end-of-life law for patients, families, health practitioners, policymakers, and the wider community.
Professor Greig de Zubicaray
Psychology
Queensland University of Technology
Professor Greig de Zubicaray is a clinical and cognitive neuropsychologist who investigates the cognitive and neurobiological bases of language and its disorders. His principal contributions are in the field of neurolinguistics, a young and highly interdisciplinary field, with influences from fields such as psycholinguistics, psychology, aphasiology, cognitive science and neuroscience. He has also made significant contributions more broadly in the interdisciplinary field of cognitive neuroscience.
South Australia
Professor Emma Baker
Human society
Adelaide University
Professor Emma Baker is Professor of Housing Research and founding Director of the Australian Centre for Housing Research at Adelaide University. Her research examines how housing shapes inequality, health and people’s opportunities across their lives. Much of her work has focused on building better evidence about Australian housing – developing national data resources, finding new ways to measure the conditions people live in, and using those insights to understand a housing system undergoing significant change. Her work connects what happens inside individual homes with broader patterns of housing opportunity and inequality.
Victoria
Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh
Political science and international relations
Deakin University
Professor Sharam Akbarzadeh has made a significant contribution to the study of religion in society that has included examination of sectarianism in the Middle East and the role of Islam in foreign policy making, Muslim integration in Australia and religious extremism. He is extending his inquiry about the role of Islam in international affairs into Indonesia as part of a joint ARC DP. His work has challenged positivist interpretations and developed a holistic approach to group identity, especially among states, that draws from historical memory and emotion. His work on state identity in Iran as the basis for foreign policy, resulting from his ARC Future Fellowship, has become a reference source. It enriches our understanding of rational decision making by states against the backdrop of historical grievances and adds to the constructivist literature in international relations.
Professor Mario Alvarez-Jimenez
Psychology
University of Melbourne
Professor Mario Alvarez-Jimenez is an internationally recognised leader in digital youth mental health whose research has transformed how psychological care is developed, delivered and integrated into youth health systems nationally and internationally. He is a Professor at the University of Melbourne and Founder and Chief of Orygen Digital at Orygen, the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health. Professor Alvarez-Jiminez’s approach integrates psychological and behavioural sciences, lived experience, digital innovation and implementation science to develop, evaluate and implement evidence-based interventions that transform the mental health system at scale.
Professor Hannah Badland
Human geography
RMIT University
Professor Hannah Badland’s research has made important contributions to the social sciences by advancing understanding of the relationship between urban environments, health, wellbeing, and social equity. Her work examines how the places in which people live, work, and participate influence their opportunities, experiences and quality of life. It demonstrates that urban planning and policy decisions are not socially neutral: the design and accessibility of neighbourhoods can create benefits for some groups while reinforcing disadvantage for others.
Industry Laureate Professor Sarah Bekessy
Built environment and design
University of Melbourne
Sarah’s interdisciplinary team has pioneered large-scale advances in nature-based solutions, through ambitious real-world experiments in collaboration with industry. Her contributions have transformed the way nature is conceived of and designed for in cities and has been translated into changes in practice and policy both in Australia and overseas. With expertise at the interface of conservation science, urban planning and design, Sarah co-developed the Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design protocol now used by governments, designers, developers and regulators to deliver nature-positive outcomes in complex urban settings.
Professor Carole Comerton-Forde
Economics
University of Melbourne
Professor Comerton-Forde’s research is driven by a central question: how do the rules and institutions governing financial markets affect their ability to serve investors and companies? Working at the intersection of academic research and market practice, she examines how competition, transparency and trading mechanisms shape liquidity, price discovery and access to capital. Her approach is to use changes in market rules and detailed trading data to identify economic mechanisms and inform choices faced by regulators and market participants.
Emeritus Professor Phillip Deery
History
Victoria University
Emeritus Professor Phillip Deery is an historian of the Cold War with a particular interest in the impact of communism, anti-communism and espionage on the politics and culture primarily of Australia and the United States. A distinctive feature of his research is a focus on the human aspects of the Cold War: how different sets of individuals were affected and how they responded. This case study approach, unusual in Cold War studies, formed the basis of two of his monographs (Red Apple and Spies and Sparrows), and several of his articles and book chapters on intelligence agents and their targets.
Dr Catherine de Fontenay
Economics
Productivity Commission
Dr Catherine de Fontenay’s applies economic theory (particularly contract theory and bargaining theory) to applied policy questions. She translates the broader economic theory background for policymakers.
Professor David Johnston
Economics
Monash University
Professor David Johnston’s research examines how economic, social and environmental circumstances influence people’s health, wellbeing and opportunities in life, and how public policies can improve these outcomes. An overarching aim of his work is to produce evidence that informs public policy, particularly policies aimed at improving outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. A central focus of his research is mental health and wellbeing. His work has examined how employment, financial insecurity, family circumstances, childhood experiences and exposure to adverse events affect mental health and life satisfaction.
Professor Eóin Killackey
Psychology
University of Melbourne
Professor Eóin Killackey’s work has had a significant impact on research and practice in youth mental health. His specific research was the first in the world to examine a means of intervention to promote functional recovery in young people with severe mental illness. Professor Killackey’s research using an intervention called Individual Placement and Support (IPS), showed that nearly 90% of young people with psychotic illness could be aided to return to school or work and that 12 months post intervention 80% of those 90% were still vocationally involved.
Professor Emma Lee OAM
Indigenous Studies
Federation University Australia
Professor Emma Lee OAM is a trawlwulwuy woman from tebrakunna country, north-east Tasmania. Starting her professional life as an archaeologist in 1997, her sphere of research interests has grown to include geography, regional development, democracy, tourism, renewables, fisheries and protected and conserved areas — what she sums up as ‘caring for country everywhere’. Professor Lee combines political advocacy with Indigenous methodologies to elevate Indigenous knowledge systems, ensuring they are recognised, embedded and normalised within mainstream institutions and organisations.
Professor Celia McMichael
Human geography
University of Melbourne
Celia McMichael is a human geographer and Professor and Head of School in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Her research sits at the intersection of human migration and mobility, population health, and environmental change. It has a particular focus on how communities experience and adapt to climate-related risks, and the ways in which adaptation can promote social justice. Her current empirical work centres on climate change and human mobility, including in the Pacific Islands.
Professor Michael Mintrom
Human society
Monash University
Professor Michael Mintrom has made a sustained contribution to the study of public policy, with a particular focus on how policy change occurs and how it can be deliberately shaped. His research on policy entrepreneurship, policy processes and policy design has influenced scholarship internationally and has helped connect social science research with the practical challenges faced by governments and public organisations. A central strand of his work concerns policy entrepreneurship. A series of contributions culminating in his book Policy Entrepreneurs and Dynamic Change helped establish policy entrepreneurship as an important area of public policy research.
Emeritus Professor John Murphy
History
University of Melbourne
Emeritus Professor John Murphy’s is a leading researcher in the fields of Australian social and political history, primarily in the twentieth century. He have published a biography of ALP leader H.V. Evatt (short-listed for the Prime Minister’s History Prize, and for the National Biography Award), and two volumes on social welfare development and politics in Australia covering 1870 to 2020 (A Decent Provision and An Unlikely Survival). Some of Professor Murphy’s other books have dealt with Australia’s Vietnam war, and the political culture of the 1950s.
Professor Emerita Gillian Triggs
International law
University of Melbourne
Gillian is an international lawyer who has worked for the United Nations as an Assistant Secretary-General and Assist. High Commissioner for Refugees, President of the Asian Development Bank’s Administrative Tribunal, President of the Australian human Rights Commission, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney and Challis professor of international law.
Professor Andrea Witcomb
Heritage, archive and museum studies
Deakin University
Across more than three decades, Professor Andrea Witcomb has made internationally significant contributions to museum and heritage studies by reshaping understanding of the social and interpretive role of museums. Her work has challenged approaches that view museums primarily as instruments of state power, hegemonic interests, or governmental agendas. Instead, she has developed an influential body of scholarship demonstrating how museums can function as sites of critical engagement with difficult and contested histories. This perspective has helped shift international debates towards a more nuanced understanding of museums as spaces of dialogue, reflection, and ethical encounter.
Professor Ihsan Yilmaz
Political Science
Deakin University
Professor Ihsan Yilmaz’s research examines how political and religious power shapes citizens, identities, loyalties and legitimate social order, and how these processes either sustain or undermine pluralism, democracy and social cohesion. Across his career, he has developed an internationally recognised body of work on authoritarianism, religion and politics, populism, civilisational politics, digital authoritarianism, diaspora politics, emotions and politics, and transnational influence. A central contribution of his scholarship is to show that authoritarianism is not reproduced only through formal institutions, coercion or law
Professor Yuting Zhang
Economics
University of Melbourne
Australians face rising out-of-pocket costs, specialist gap fees and insurance premiums, yet major health reforms are often made with little evidence about what works. Professor Yuting Zhang, at the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research and Founding Director of the Health Analytics, Leadership and Economics (HALE) Hub at the University of Melbourne, helps to close that gap. Using rigorous causal methods and some of the nation’s largest linked administrative datasets, she evaluates how health policies affect patients, providers and taxpayers, and uses the findings to support policy reform.
Western Australia
John Curtin Distinguished Professor Alan Duncan
Economics
Curtin University
Professor Alan Duncan is Director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) and John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University. Alan’s research is motivated by a passion to influence public debates on economic and social issues through rigorous, evidence-based research. He has a broad range of interests covering labour and workforce issues, gender equity, economic evaluation, public policy, poverty and inequality, the distribution of income and wealth, housing, migration, household wellbeing and childcare affordability.
Professor Anne Poelina
Indigenous Law, Philosophy and Health Science
University of Notre Dame
Professor Anne Poelina’s contribution to the social sciences is grounded in her identity, responsibilities and lived experience as a Nyikina Warrwa woman from the Martuwarra Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. As an Indigenous scholar, educator and interdisciplinary research leader, she has dedicated her career to advancing Indigenous knowledge systems, First Law, environmental justice, human rights and the inseparable relationships between healthy Country, healthy people and flourishing societies.