President's Message

I write this message during National Reconciliation Week 2023, and in the lead-up to the Voice Referendum later this year. I encourage you to watch Academy Fellow Barry Jones’ powerful speech, which is available here. This was developed in collaboration with the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and the Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH). I will also take this opportunity to remind you that the Academy’s statement in support of the Voice Referendum is available here along with several Academy resources on reconciliation and the Voice Referendum.

The Academy is currently assessing applications for funding through the first round of the Wilhelm, Martha and Otto Rechnitz Memorial Fund. This generous bequest from the estate of Wilhelm Rechnitz supports Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander early- and mid-career social scientists and recognises our research leaders in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander society, language and culture. Outcomes will be announced in July.

The Academy’s policy committee continues to have a busy time contributing to several government inquiries including into the university sector, into early childhood education and care and into measuring what matters for Australians’ wellbeing. This has been an unusually demanding time and making high-quality submissions that influence government policy is hard work, but work which goes to the heart of what we want to achieve as an Academy. I want to acknowledge all those who have contributed to this process in recent months, and I will have more to say later in the year.

Please also take time to have your say in the confidential ACOLA survey on how research assessment shapes research culture and the decisions of researchers.

I look forward to what lies ahead this year for the Academy. And remember that if you have any suggestions about the Academy’s activities or engagement please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Richard Holden
President

Have your say: ACOLA research survey

Have a view on the future of research assessment in Australia? On behalf of the Australian government, Chief Scientist Cathy Foley has commissioned the Australian Council of Learned Academies to review how research assessment affects research culture, behaviours and choices. Find more on the project here or click through the confidential survey here. Closes 12 June.

Shape the future: Workshop grants

Exciting news! Applications for the Academy’s Workshops Program grants are now open. If you’re a social science researcher in Australia, this is your chance to receive up to $9,000 for innovative collaboration and networking opportunities. Be part of shaping the social sciences and apply for a Workshops Program grant here.

Policy updates

Catch up
Find the latest Academy submissions to government including our submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into early childhood education and care and our joint submission (with the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences) to the second consultation process on Measuring what matters.

Out soon
The Australian Universities Accord Panel will report their priority actions to the Minister for Education later this month. You can find our submission here. Also in June, second round consultations will begin on the draft national science and research priorities. To be ready, find the conversation starter here—Developing Australia’s Science and Research Priorities and National Science Statement – a National Conversation Starter—and freshen up on the Academy’s submission, lodged in April, here. You can browse all of the Academy’s policy submissions from recent years at this link.

Fellows rock the boat

In an unusual move, academics, including 17 Academy Fellows, signed an open letter to the government expressing their concern as scholars about aspects of the AUKUS Agreement. You can find details here.

103 years strong 🎉

Our warmest birthday wishes to Fellow Ron Taft, who celebrates his 103rd birthday on 3 June.

Lifetime achievements acknowledged

Congratulations to Fellow Warwick Anderson—awarded the prestigious Bernal Prize, a lifetime achievement award, by the Society for Social Studies of Science for ‘distinguished contributions’ to the field of Science and Technology Studies

Congratulations to Fellow Jenny Lewis, who received the 2023 Routledge Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding, impactful and lasting scholarly contribution to the field of public management and policy implementation. 

All details and application forms are available at this link.
Applications for both programs close Monday 26 June 2023.

Read, Watch, Listen, Attend

Read

Get across ground-breaking work over six decades, to create a Walpiri dictionary, by a team that includes Fellow Jane Simpson, featured in The Conversation. Their efforts have seen it shortlisted for a 2023 Australian Book Industry Award.

Budget 2023 attracted lots of commentary in May from Academy Fellows—too many to list in full and many behind a paywall. Catch up with perspectives from President Richard Holden, Fellows Robert Breunig, Ross Gittins, Michelle Grattan, Paul Kelly, Andrew Podger and John Quiggan.

 
Watch
Tune in to the startling and thought-provoking insights of Academy Fellow and national living treasure, Barry Jones, in this recording of his impassioned speech on Australia’s reconciliation journey and the importance of the Voice, delivered earlier in 2023. 

Listen
A special edition of our Seriously Social podcast brings you an audio-only version of Barry Jones’ speech, first delivered for Australia Day 2023, and recorded for Seriously Social for National Reconciliation Week. In this episode Barry Jones reflects from his long experience of Australia’s complex and often fraught relations with our First Nations Peoples.

Attend

Anything new under the sun? Aye: AI

Book now for a sweeping, global take on AI, news and the media. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society present a two-day symposium—Automated News & Media, 13-14 July 2023. Fact checking and eye-witness in an AI world, mapping digital equality, automated art, the future of ads and regulating automated content are just some of the hot topics in this thought-provoking program. In-person and online, registrations close 23 June. Find details and book your place here.

‘Islam in a polarised world’ is the timely theme of the Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies’ (AAIMS) annual conference on 21-22 November 2023, hosted by The Centre for Muslim States and Societies (CMSS), University of Western Australia. Covering contemporary place, the future of Islam in the multipolarity of global politics and shifting power relations, the call for papers is open until 17 June 2023. Click here for details.

Vale

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Academy Fellow Robert O’Neill in April. You can find a tribute to his life and work here.

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia.

We acknowledge and pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land on which our national office is located, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, and

to their elders past, present and future.