Academy News March

This past month the Academy’s Fay Gale Lecture was delivered by Professor Chelsea Watego from the Queensland University of Technology. Professor Watego’s lecture titled No Room at the Inn: Rethinking critical race studies and its place in the Australian academy was a powerful reminder of the challenges that remain, and work still to be done, in the Australian Academy and across society. You can watch the lecture here and I commend it to you.

Professor Watego is a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman with over 20 years of experience working within Indigenous health as a health worker and researcher.

The lecture is named in honour of the late Professor Gwendoline Fay Gale AO (1932–2008), the first female President of the Academy (1997–2000) and an eminent human geographer well known for her contributions to academia, the advancement of women within academia, Indigenous studies and juvenile justice.

The Academy also recently made a submission in support of Australian Research Council Amendment (Ensuring Research Independence) Bill 2018 which “Amends the Australian Research Council Act 2001 to remove ministerial discretion in relation to the approval of research grants administered by the Australian Research Council.”

Irrespective of the prospects for successful passage of this Bill, the proposed changes would not limit the ability of the Minister to set priorities and provide guidance to the ARC CEO on processes and broad directions. But they would reassure Australia’s research community and the ARC of the importance and integrity of the Council’s funding programs and processes. The Academy will continue to press the next Australian Government to consider a full review of Australia’s research ecosystem. This is particularly important in light of the Ministerial veto of ARC peer reviewed projects late last year.

Richard Holden

The year is well in train, and while the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be under control we are all watching in horror as war rages in Ukraine and floods engulf South-East Queensland and Northern NSW. Our thoughts are with all those Fellows, friends and colleagues who have been impacted directly or indirectly by these events.

The Academy’s Executive Committee met in person in Sydney in mid-February; their first face-to-face meeting since November 2019, and it was wonderful to connect with colleagues and take the time for a more nuanced discussion of strategy and decisions than is easily achieved through Zoom. During this meeting, the Committee welcomed new Committee members Fleur Johns (Chair, International Committee), Nick Enfield (Chair, Panel A) and Renée Fry-McKibbin (Chair, Panel B). Committee members also discussed a number of issues including the challenges and changes to the ARC, broader work on research integrity, and plans for the Academy’s Seriously Social communications platform and for our 2022 Annual Symposium taking place from 28-29 November in Melbourne and online.

Academy staff also took the opportunity early in the year to get out of our office (and home-offices) for a facilitated planning day in which we covered the things we all value about working with the Academy (the flexible and supportive workplace and opportunities to engage with our wonderful Fellows high on the list!) as well as various ways of collaborating in the new normal mode of hybrid home and office work. Our facilitator also led us through the DISC personality profile and it was interesting to see the range of eagle, owl, dove and parrot ‘types’ that make up our small team!

Chris Hatherly

The Academy’s Annual Symposium will be held on Monday 28 - Tuesday 29 November, followed by Panel Meetings and the AGM on Wednesday 30 November. These events will take place at the University of Melbourne as part of a larger and inaugural Humanities, Arts and Social Science Congress (numerous HASS-sector societies and associations holding annual meetings and events over a two-week period) and will also be broadcast online. Further information and links for registration will follow in the coming months.

'Data commons' exist when individuals work with other individuals or organisations to share and collaborate on data. The Academy is keen to understand how Australia’s social science researchers use data commons today and we need your help. Our 12 question, 5-10 minute survey seeks to understand how Australian social science researchers use data commons today and what we're missing.

It's the first survey of its kind and will provide the Academy and other stakeholders with evidence to advocate for social science data commons over the coming decade. Participate online here (closing this Friday 4 March).

We’re always on the lookout for news from the Academy’s Fellows. If you’ve published a book, received an award, appeared in the news or participated in policymaking activities, we’d love to know. We’ll often share these successes in this newsletter or on our social channels.

We are also delighted to hear about your newly published research - this often becomes a focus for an episode of our Seriously Social podcast, videos or other communications materials. Email any updates to sue.white@socialsciences.org.au.

READ

While the news of Russia invading Ukraine sent shockwaves around the world last week, several of our Fellows have analysed and written on the topic, including:

- Russia-Ukraine conflict: experts explain and Putin and Ukraine: the beginning of a wider war?

featuring Emeritus Professor Graeme Gill, and

- Russian invasion of Ukraine raises dilemmas for Middle East and India by Fellow Amin Saikal.

Ever wondered how 50 years in the social sciences unfolds? In 2019, when Fellow Peter Saunders retired from the Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW, we decided to put his path to and through a life of scholarship. The result, Scribbling A Way: My Journey Through the Foothills of Scholarship, can be downloaded here.

ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) 1 – the State of the Social Sciences 2021

In case the end of 2021 was a blur (it always is, even without a pandemic in play), and you missed a read of the State of the Social Sciences 2021 report, you’ll want to make time to check it out before your year gets too hectic.

This guide to the trends, challenges and opportunities for Australian social science features insights from several sectors making up the social sciences ecosystem and is based on stakeholder input from 14 formal submissions, 12 roundtables, five interviews, 390 survey responses and 30+ reviewers. Get into it here.

ICYMI 2 – Big Data for Social Policy
In November the Academy was proud to release Big Data for Australian Social Policy. This book is the result of a three-year Academy project funded by the ARC and led by Fellows at the Social Policy Research Centre (UNSW), the Institute for Social Science Research (UQ) and Griffith University. The book is available on the Academy website and is edited by Fellows Janet Chan and Peter Saunders.

WATCH
Politics has been transformed by the COVID era – watch ‘Pandemic politics’ with Fran Kelly chair a discussion between Fellow Rosalind Dixon, political correspondent Laura Tingle and political commentator and author George Megalogenis about what Australians want from their governments and who we can trust if our politicians do not tell us the truth. This event was part of the Sydney Festival and presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas: watch it here.

What are you watching? Any great social science-based docos or videos of talks we should know about? We are always keen for recommendations to share in this newsletter (especially if Fellows feature!).
Just email sue.white@socialsciences.org.au with your tips.