Abra Pressler

SERD must rebuild bridges into the humanities for future prosperity

If Australia is to develop an innovation economy which involves full development of breakthrough technologies and effective responses to current and future challenges, the SERD must make recommendations that will build bridges into the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS). The Australian Academy of the Humanities welcomes the bold ambition of the SERD Discussion Paper. […]

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The ARC proposes bold plan for national grants—re-building from first principles

The Australian Academy of the Humanities welcomes the Australian Research Council (ARC) Board’s vision for bold reform of the National Competitive Grant Program (NCGP) to set a foundation for the next 20 years. Read our full submission. As Australia faces a period of geopolitical, social and technological instability, the ARC’s role within the research sector

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R&D’s triple imperative on Asia capability

Australia’s R&D planning needs to boost our Asia capability. Australia is falling behind likeminded nations such as the UK, the US, and even Canada in trade and investment with our larger immediate neighbours. This underperformance is costly for human and strategic reasons, and because nations such as Indonesia are registering strong economic growth, with a

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Cultural & creative industries — proactive R&D can increase investment

Cultural and creative industries (the arts, design and architecture, screen and radio, advertising and marketing, publishing and media, and creative software and digital content) forms a dynamic industrial continuum based on HASS-led, STEM supported knowledge inputs. The creative services component is a high growth, high income sector which meets ubiquitous consumer and company demand with

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Indigenous R&D needs to benefit Indigenous communities

Indigenous leaders and Fellows tell us that their priority is to return Indigenous knowledge to communities, who can then decide how to use it – for cultural repair and restoration, for creative and cultural industries, for tourism on their terms.[1] The exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters is an Australian R&D success, currently touring Europe

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Trust in research: 21st-century R&D depends on a strong knowledge society

Digital information services are the infrastructure of the knowledge economy (and of representative democracy). Arguably, trust and signalling on expertise are as important for the knowledge economy as the road, sea and air rules are for the physical economy. Attitudes towards expertise and trust in science will set the confident knowledge economies apart. Authoritarian states

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Humanities & MedTech

While the clinical promise is considerable, large and growing cohorts of people standing to benefit, realising the full therapeutic potential of BCIs requires more than technical success. Patients often report significant improvements in mood, motor control, or cognitive function, but these gains are frequently accompanied by profound psychological disturbances, including altered self-perception, emotional volatility, and

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“Music has always been made here” — new book reframes music-making in Australia

It has been over 50 years since the publication of Roger Covell’s 1967 book, Australia’s Music: Themes of a New Society, which was described as both a scholarly account of Australian music history but also “an entertaining social history”. It’s a book, Associate Professor Amanda Harris FAHA says the editors had in mind when planning

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Public Humanities journal seeks to disrupt “traditional academic landscape”

Developed as a place for scholars, students, activists, journalists, policymakers, professionals, practitioners, and non-specialists to connect and share knowledge, Cambridge University Press’ journal, Public Humanities, launched in 2024, seeks to disrupt the traditional publishing format and bring new research to the public sphere. Edited by Professor Jeffrey R. Wilson from Harvard University and Dr Zoe

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Marija Tabain FAHA is working to preserve ‘little languages’ for future generations

Professor Marija Tabain FAHA is one of the world’s leading scholars in linguistic phonetics. She has made an outstanding contribution to the quantitative analysis of the phonetics and phonology, particularly within central Australian languages. Marija’s work has advanced our understanding of how research on “small languages” can elucidate the acoustic and articulatory constraints that underpin

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Fellowship funds new research on how slavery in the Philippines may have influenced Australian history

Forms of slavery were present in the Philippines archipelago before the Spanish became a colonial power in the islands in the late sixteenth-century. While some sixteenth century Spanish laws prohibited the enslavement of Indigenous peoples, the practice continued well into the eighteenth century. Tens of thousands of unfree peoples from across Asia and the Pacific

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Backing Australian Thinking — Australian Academy of the Humanities’ 2025 Election Statement

The Australian electorate, by and large, “backs Australian made” when it comes to manufacturing and innovation. But modern social and cultural challenges don’t receive the same profile. We call on the next Australian government to “back Australian thinking”. As a sovereign nation, with a complex history and multicultural population, we must invest in understanding the

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Acknowledgement of Country

The Australian Academy of the Humanities recognises Australia’s First Nations Peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of this land, and their continuous connection to country, community and culture.