Obituaries

Vale Emeritus Professor Elspeth Probyn FAHA 1958 – 2025

Elected to the Academy in 2002, Elspeth was internationally recognised for her work in cultural and gender studies. She was especially noted for innovative contributions to theories of identities and subjectivity, and her original and cross-disciplinary research. Her publications spanned the fields of gender, media and cultural studies, philosophy, cultural geography, anthropology and critical psychology. […]

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Vale Emeritus Professor Jeffrey Siegel FAHA 1945 – 2025

Elected to the Academy in 2013, Jeff was an internationally recognised linguist who conducted research in several interrelated areas, including contact languages, language description and documentation, language acquisition, and the teaching of non-standard varieties in formal education. His main areas of research were the processes involved in the development of language contact varieties, and the

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Emeritus Professor Francis J West FAHA 1927 – 2025

Francis West FAHA (1927-2025) was one of the cohort of relatively young British scholars attracted to migrate to contribute to the expansion of Australian universities, an eclectic scholar who occupied significant positions in the formative years of several universities and who became a Foundation Fellow of the Academy. Born in 1927 in Holmpton, East Yorkshire,

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Vale Professor Emerita Margaret Manion IBVM AO FAHA 1935 – 2024

Elected to the Academy in 1986, Margaret was art historian and curator recognised internationally for her scholarship on Medieval and Renaissance art, in particular the art of the illuminated manuscript. She was Herald Chair Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1979 to 1995, and also the first woman to chair the

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Vale Emeritus Professor Donald Denoon FAHA 1940 – 2024

A leading historian, Donald wrote extensively on Australia’s relations with Pacific countries as well as on Papua New Guinea. Editing and promoting the research of others across the Pacific and Asia, Donald’s personal research interests and collaborations focused on a number of key themes, including settler societies and their relations with Indigenous people, medical history

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Vale Emeritus Professor John Rickard FAHA 1935 – 2024

A renowned Australian historian with a reputation as a leading interpreter of Australian cultural and political history, John was elected to the Academy in 1991. He wrote widely on Australian culture and biography and was awarded the prestigious Ernest Scott Prize in 1988 for his book Australia: A Cultural History. John was a former professional

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Vale Professor William (Bill) Rubinstein OAM FAHA 1946 – 2024

Elected to the Academy in 1986, he published extensively on modern British history, especially the history of elites, and on Jewish history. Instrumental in advancing Jewish studies in Australia, Bill was foundation editor (1985-95) of the Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, President of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies (1989-91), and President of the Jewish

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Vale Professor Michael Osborne FAHA 1942 – 2024

Michael Osborne was a complex person who defies easy categorisation. A gifted scholar of Greek epigraphy, a committed Sinophile, and Vice Chancellor of La Trobe University (1990-2006), where his career as an academic leader ended in conflict and serious turmoil. Michael was an inveterate traveller (especially to China) where he found that his interest in

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Emeritus Professor David Tunley AM FAHA Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques 1930 – 2024

David Tunley AM FAHA Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques was born in Sydney and grew up in the country town of Gulgong in New South Wales, moving as a boarder to Sydney for his secondary education. He went on to do a Diploma in Music at the Sydney Conservatorium, specialising in piano–the Bachelor’s Music

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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.