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Governess and accountant for Parramatta graziers, John and Elizabeth Macarthur, Penelope Lucas left precious little written in her own hand about her own life. Alan Atkinson FAHA considers the challenges of writing the biography of an essentially silent historical figure. The result is an experiment in historical method, using insights from other disciplines in an attempt to understand the way his subject understood and managed her world.
We might think of sexually transmitted infections and the encouragement of safe sex as uniquely modern. Professor Tim Parkin FAHA, an expert on ancient Rome, shows how researching ancient sexual health can help guide modern responses to disease outbreaks.
To celebrate books and their impact on our lives on UNESCO 2026 World Book and Copyright Day (23 April), we asked our Fellows, award-winners and colleagues to tell us about a book that changed them, and why.
Archaeologist Emeritus Professor Ian Lilley FSA FAHA led an Australian-Dutch team to excavate Queensland’s Camp Columbia, home to the Government in Exile of the Netherlands East Indies. Ahead of Anzac Day (25 April) and Dutch Remembrance Day (4 May), he reflects on this little-known kernel of Australian and Dutch military history.
Emeritus Professor Joanne Tompkins FAHA highlights the vital role of arts research in shaping Australian culture, exports and productivity, and outlines opportunities for arts researchers to better communicate their impact, in this extract from her speech at the 2025 Annual Academy Dinner.
The rise of disinformation and misinformation undermines social cohesion, democracy and our sense of self. A new report, prepared by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia for Australia’s Chief Scientist, convenes researchers across the Academy of the Humanities and Academy of Social Sciences in Australia to highlight the significant role of Australia’s public institutions in building knowledge about misinformation and disinformation.
Australian historian Lyndal Roper FAHA is the first Australian to win the Holberg Prize, often considered the “Nobel Prize of the humanities.” So who is Lyndal Roper? Professor Charles Zika FAHA, Professor Katie Barclay FAHA, and Professor Susan Broomhall FAHA explore the life and scholarship of their colleague, and what her research tells us about the past, and ourselves.
When a librarian from the University of Sydney discovered a chalk sketch of a mother and baby in a 500-year old copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Emeritus Professor Jaynie Anderson AM FAHA thought it could be by Venetian Renaissance artist, Giorgione. Prof Anderson discusses her new book, Giorgione, Dante and the Sydney Incunable, and tracing the international connections that ultimately proved her hypothesis correct, and how the discovery has changed what we know about Giorgione.
Elected in 2025, Professor Andrekos Varnava FAHA FRHistS FRSA from Flinders University is an expert on modern British empire, and the pre-eminent specialist on the history of Cyprus under British rule. His current research focuses on political assassinations, and the social, political, and economic context in which they happen, on public health in the British empire, and on Cypriot migration.
In our 2026-27 Pre-Budget submission, the Australian Academy of the Humanities calls on the Government to back Australian thinking by investing in the humanities capabilities that underpin productivity, social cohesion and democratic resilience.
Andy Kirkpatrick FAHA, a scholar of World Englishes, English as a lingua franca, and language education, has shown how attitudes towards the primacy of English in Southeast Asia can negatively affect the quality of communication in high-level regional organisations, while also harming children’s education at a foundational level. He argues for greater recognition of the value of linguistic diversity across all levels of education and diplomacy.
In Germany, a new research hub led by AAH Fellow Professor Kate Rigby FAHA, Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities brings international researchers together to reshape our knowledge of global environmental challenges and seed change in research and policy agendas across the world. Prof Rigby shares how German funding is driving large-scale multi-disciplinary research programs.
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.