Annual Academy Lecture

Each year, in this distinguished lecture series, a Fellow is invited by Council to deliver a lecture on their latest research. The series also features a lecture by each Academy President during their term in office. The Academy Lecture is a rich display of the breadth and depth of scholarship in the humanities and the impact and imaginative power of this work.

The long list of lectures that have been presented is in itself a potted history of the Fellowship, and richly displays the breadth and depth of their scholarship.

The first Academy Lecture (then simply called the ‘Annual Lecture’) was delivered by Emeritus Professor A. D. Hope on 19 May 1970, in the National Library theatre. It was entitled The literary influence of Academies.

The literary influence of an academy can only be effective if its members are prepared to be daring, controversial, enterprising and imaginative, to take up large and important issues, to pronounce on them clearly and firmly, and to advance the light by showing themselves – A. D. Hope, Annual Academy Lecture, 1970

We have over 50 years of Annual Academy Lectures. Unfortunately, the 2020 Academy Lecture could not be held due to the global pandemic.

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.