Abra Pressler

The speech celebrated a 20-year struggle, led by the Academy, that has finally secured (some) funding for humanities and Indigenous research infrastructure. It’s a broad-brush account, not a definitive record. We welcome comments and additions. Above all, it’s a rallying call. We now have a national platform. What’s past is prologue. You can watch a […]

As I was writing Spectacles of waste (Polity 2024), I got the feeling that a spectre is haunting the modern world. Not the spectre of communism, alas, but phantom human excrement, the uncanny stool. In keeping with the book’s title, I suppose I should say it is an increasingly spectacular, if disagreeable, spectre. I’m referring

You’re reading this on a device that didn’t exist when you were born and on which you are, as I am, utterly dependent. What that shows, among other things, is that the truth matters and that, notwithstanding the nuances and complexities associated with a philosophical account of ‘the truth’, there are some simple but profound,

Migration is in the spotlight again: migrants are being blamed for cost-of-living pressures, the housing crisis, and congested cities. Those who defend migration argue that migrants contribute to economic growth and constitute a revenue boost for Australian institutions. The supporters of migration deal in abstracts (‘skills injection’, ‘productivity boost’, ‘accelerated innovation’) while the critics target

‘Before I was a researcher, I was an Aboriginal Health Worker, which for anyone unfamiliar is a mix between a nurse and a social worker,’ begins Sociologist and Social Work academic Dr Jacob Prehn, a proud Worimi man living on Palawa Country. He is the recipient of the 2024 John Mulvaney Fellowship, awarded annually to

In 1749, a socially and religiously provocative event orchestrated and performed by a group of brazen women unfolded on the streets of Damascus. It was an unprecedented celebratory pageant dedicated to the miraculous recovery of a young man from a fatal illness — he was the lover of one of the participating women. Breaking the

Emeritus Professor Colin Mackerras and Professor Joseph Lo Bianco chat with the Academy about what the honour means to them, the aspirations they have for the role, and the future of their fields. Sixty years of scholarship with China In early June, scholars of Asian studies travelled to Beijing to celebrate the career of Emeritus

First appearing in 2016, artist Peter Drew‘s ‘Aussie’ posters have become a familiar part of Australia’s urban streetscape. They offer a simple, striking visual formula, showing photographs of non-white people stamped across the bottom with the large word ‘AUSSIE’ – affectionate slang for ‘Australian’. The subjects were born or lived in Australia during the early

The Dent Medal recognises a significant contribution to the discipline of musicology on an international scale. It has only ever been awarded to one other Australian since its inception in 1961 — to the late Professor Andrew McCredie in 1974. ‘I would have never dared to imagine that my name would be on any list