Archives: Publications

Alan Petersen From SARS to Zika, and Ebola to COVID-19, epidemics and pandemics have become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Each outbreak presents new challenges but the responses are often similar. This important book by Academy Fellow Professor Alan Petersen explores the dimensions, dynamics and implications of emerging pandemic societies. Drawing on ideas from sociology […]

Steven Hamilton, Richard Holden In many ways, Australia handled the COVID-19 pandemic as well as any country in the world – but what did we get wrong? Australia’s economic policy response to the pandemic was as effective as any other country’s – and dramatically better than most. Was this inevitable? Was it luck? Was it the […]

Algorithms of Anxiety: Fear in the Digital Age Anthony Elliott Machine learning algorithms are widely presumed to herald a world in which the crippling burdens of anxiety can be left behind.  The digital revolution promises a brave new world where individuals, communities and organizations can at last take control of the future – anticipating, designing […]

Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New Gari Tudor-Smith, Paul Williams, Felicity Meakins The incredible story of the resilience and recovery of Australia’s First Nations languages Australia’s language diversity is truly breathtaking. This continent lays claim to the world’s longest continuous collection of cultures, including over 440 unique languages and many more dialects. Sadly, European […]

The Development of University Teaching Over Time: Pedagogical Approaches from 1800 to the Present By Tom O’Donoghue Examining two centuries of university education, this book charts the development of pedagogical approaches since the year 1800 and how they have transformed higher education. While institutions for promoting advanced learning in various forms have existed in Asia, […]

This book provides a comprehensive overview of ‘societal deception’ – how and why people are deceived and led to believe fake news. Coherently blending critical political economy and sociology, the author provocatively examines how corporations, political parties, the media, think tanks and assorted ‘influencers’ seek to manipulate public opinion to achieve their goals. This book […]

An incisive, authoritative account of the West’s failures in Afghanistan, from 9/11 to the fall of Kabul In 1958, Richard Nixon described Afghanistan as “unconquerable.” On 15 August 2021, he was proven right. After twenty years of intervention, US and NATO forces retreated, enabling the Taliban to return to power. Tens of thousands were killed […]

Acclaimed historians Nick Dyrenfurth and Frank Bongiorno tell the story of the Australian Labor Party’s rich history of more than 130 years and examine its central role in modern Australia. The Australian Labor Party is one of the oldest labour parties in the world and the first to form a government. From the prime ministerships […]

Vagrant Lives in Colonial Australasia: Regulating Mobility, 1840-1910 Catharine Coleborne (Author) Investigating the history of vagrants in colonial Australia and New Zealand, this book provides insights into the histories and identities of marginalised peoples in the British Pacific Empire. Showing how their experiences were produced, shaped and transformed through laws and institutions, it reveals how the […]

Hidden Wars: Gendered Political Violence in Asia’s Civil Conflicts Sara E. Davies and Jacqui True Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) has always been a part of warfare. In Asia, testimonies of egregious rape and sexual violence extend back to the Rape of Nanjing, to the experience of the Korean comfort women in World War II, […]

Dreaming Ecology Nomadics and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge, Victoria River, Northern Australia Authored by: Deborah Bird Rose Edited by: Darrell Lewis, Margaret Jolly In the author’s own words, Dreaming Ecology ‘explores a holistic understanding of the interconnections of people, country, kinship, creation and the living world within a context of mobility. Implicitly it asks how people lived so […]

Edited by: Robert Freestone, Bill Randolph, Wendy Steele. Urban Australia confronts numerous challenges in the 21st century: climate change, housing, transport, greenspace, social inequality, and governance, among them. While state and local governments wrestle with these issues, they are continent wide and require national leadership, direction and participation. As a highly urbanised country without a national […]

Multicultural Arc describes and analyses a half-century of multicultural action and policy in Australia, as the country changed from being 99.5% European to one of the most diverse societies in the world. Through examinations of the changes introduced by successive governments, readers follow the twists and turns of ideology and popular attitudes. From the “invention” […]

The modern bathroom is an ingenious compilation of locked doors, smooth porcelain, 4-ply tissue and antibacterial hand soap, but despite this miracle of indoor plumbing, we still can’t bear the thought that anyone else should know that our bodies produce waste. Why must we live by the rules of this intense scatological embarrassment? In Spectacles of […]

Australia is at a much-needed turning point in work, care and family policy. Australian women, families and communities are struggling to manage the complex demands of work and care. Rapid social and demographic change, alongside new workplace, labour market trends and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a policy revamp that will allow all […]

The secret of economics is that the most powerful insights come from a handful of big ideas that anyone can follow.’ This small book tells a big story. From ancient times to the modern world, The Shortest History of Economics unearths the hidden economic forces behind war, innovation and social transformation. It traces how capitalism and the […]

An economist examines three modern forces that have redefined what “money” means, who controls it, and what the future of finance might look like. Money is increasingly cheap, digital, and mobile. In Money in the Twenty-First Century, economist Richard Holden examines the virtues and risks of low interest rates, mobile money, and cryptocurrencies, and explains how […]

A vital new work that untangles the overlooked history, personal narratives and complex geopolitics of enforced military prostitution and survivor redress in Indonesia, arising from Japan‘s World War II military occupation of South-East Asia.

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a longstanding problem that has shifted very little despite increasing international and national media coverage and attention from governments and in policy debates. But what do we know about it and how to stop it? This book synthesises the latest knowledge about violence against women and girls, what […]