Announcing 2023 Academy Fellows

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this article contains the name of a person who is deceased.

Human rights activist Professor Megan Davis, Archibald-winning artist Ben Quilty, Chancellor Tom Calma AO, author and film-maker Larissa Behrendt AO, and space archaeologist Alice Gorman are among 40 new Fellows elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities today.

Election to the Australian Academy of Humanities recognises achievement in and contribution to the humanities in Australia. It is the highest honour within the humanities.

“Our new Fellows represent remarkable achievement across the breadth of the humanities,” said Executive Director Inga Davis. “Their contributions to the cultural and social tapestry of Australia cannot be overstated.”

In addition to announcing its new Fellows for 2024, the Academy of the Humanities has announced a new Indigenous Studies section, electing five inaugural Fellows to its membership. They are: constitutional scholar Professor Megan Davis, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Bronwyn Fredericks, Indigenous educational leader Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney, Miles Franklin Award-winning novelist Kim Scott and Associate Professor Kyllie Cripps for her work in the field of Indigenous family violence.

“This is a significant milestone in the Academy’s history,” said Inga Davis. ‘It is the first new section in over twenty-five years.  The section is led by our Indigenous Fellows and jointly, we are on a quest to recognise and grow Indigenous-led scholarship in the higher education sector.”

The Australian Academy of the Humanities is an independent, not-for-profit organisation with a Fellowship of over 700 humanities leaders championing their unique role in understanding the past, explaining the world we live in, and imagining and shaping the future.

The Academy is one of Australia’s five Learned Academies – independent organisations established to encourage excellence in their respective fields and to provide expertise and advice at public, institutional and government levels.

The 2023 Fellows are:

• Professor Katie Barclay—an internationally prize-winning research leader.
• Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO—A researcher, novelist and filmmaker working across law, Indigenous studies and cultural studies.
• Professor Sarah Biddulph—an internationally renowned scholar of Chinese law.
• Professor Axel Bruns—a scholar of the journalistic aspects of digital media, news & politics.
• Professor Megan Cassidy-Welch—a leading researcher in the international field of medieval studies.
• Professor Annie Clarke—a pioneer of archaeobotany, community archaeology & collaborative Indigenous archaeology.
• Associate Professor Justin Clemens—a literary theorist elucidating the connections between literature, psychoanalysis, and philosophy.
• Professor Catharine Coleborne—an authority on the histories of health, medicine and mental illness.
• Professor Felicity Cox—a phonetician and linguist specialising in acoustic phonetic properties of Australian English.
• Professor Kyllie Cripps—a leading researcher of Indigenous family violence, child abuse and sexual assault.
• Professor Tanya Dalziell—an award-winning scholar who has made major contributions to the study of Australian literature, literary biography, and cultural studies.
• Professor Megan Davis—a renowned constitutional lawyer, scholar and public law expert.
• Professor Bronwyn Fredericks—a multidisciplinary scholar and leading advocate for the improvement of educational, health and participation for First Nations peoples.
• Professor Kate Fullagar—an internationally esteemed historian of empire and Indigeneity in the eighteenth-century world.
• Associate Professor Alice Gorman—pioneering the intersection of archaeology and space.
• Professor Helena Grehan—international thought leader on ethics and responsibility in, and in response, to contemporary art practice.
• Dr Amanda Harris—a musicologist and cultural historian of cross-cultural engagements, histories of Australian indigenous music and dance, and women’s histories.
• Associate Professor Greta Hawes—a classicist specialising in ancient Greek myth and its reception in both the ancient and modern worlds.
• Professor Heather A. Horst—a leading scholar of the human and cultural aspects of digital technologies.
• Associate Professor David McInnis—a leader in the stuydy of early modern and Shakespearean literature, in particular the period’s drama and theatre culture.
• Dr Graeme Miles—a leading philosopher recognised for his contributions to understanding intellectual life in late antiquity.
• Professor Kristie Miller—Recognised for her work in metaphysics on questions about persistence, composition, mereology, identity, grounding & spacetime.
• Professor Catherine Mills—an international leader in bioethics, continental philosophy, and feminist philosophy.
• Professor Ilana Mushin—an internationally distinguished linguist with significant contributions to the documentation of Australian Indigenous languages.
• Professor Kaori Okano—an internationally recognised authority on the Japanese education system.
• Professor Neal Peres Da Costa—a musicologist, keyboard player and educator of significant note.
• Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney—an education and humanist with significant experience in Indigenous education.
• Professor Cristina Rocha—an internationally acclaimed & widely recognised anthropologist of religion.
• Distinguished Professor Kim Scott—one of Australia’s most acclaimed fiction writers and a major figure in Australian letters.
• Associate Professor Katie Sutton—A prize-winning researcher on transgender and queer German literature, history and identity.
• Professor Gillian (Jill) Wigglesworth—an eminent Australian linguist studying language acquisition, bilingualism, language teaching & assessment.

Corresponding Fellows

• Dr Charles Forsdick—an eminent international expert in Translation Studies, focusing on colonial history, penal culture and slavery.
• Dr Julian Savulescu—one of the world’s leading bioethicists specialising in the ethical issue of genetics.

Honorary Fellows

• Dr Alison Alexander—one of Australia most eminent public historians with a special interest in Tasmanian public history
• Professor Tom Calma AO—human rights and social justice campaigner, Chancellor and 2023 Senior Australian of the Year.
• Dr Cliff Coulthard (deceased) —Adnyamathanha elder and world-renowned rock art expert.
• Kevin Hobgood–Brown AM—an international expert on business, cultural and educational connection, specialising in Asia.
• Dr Christina Parolin—a published historian & past Executive Director of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
• Ben Quilty—one of Australia’s most recognised and successful artists, a notable humanitarian and advocate.
• Associate Professor Caroline Turner AM—a leading independent scholar and proponent of Contemporary Asian Art in Australia.