Three Fellows receive 2025 King’s Birthday Honours

The Australian Academy of the Humanities is delighted to see our Fellows recognised for their service on the King’s Birthday Honours List, as announced on 9 June 2025.

“We warmly congratulate three Fellows honoured over the weekend,” said Acting President Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Minchin FAHA. “Two Fellows achieved Australia’s highest honour, the Companion to the Order of Australia: broadcaster and social commentator Phillip Adams and Nobel laureate and author Professor John (J. M.) Coetzee.

“Phillip Adams’ elevation to Companion recognises a career spanning over five decades and a significant contribution to Australian film and media public discourse, and cultural life. As one of Australia’s most respected broadcasters, his commentary on Late Night Live has shaped national conversations on politics, arts, and social issues for over two decades.”

“Professor J.M. Coetzee’s recognition as Companion honours one of the most significant literary voices of our time. The recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003, Coetzee’s novels, including Disgrace, Life & Times of Michael K, and Waiting for the Barbarians, have questioned and changed our understanding of colonial and post-colonial experiences, moral complexity, and the human condition. His distinguished service in higher education spans the United States, South Africa, and Australia.”

“Professor Anthony Johns’ appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia recognises his groundbreaking scholarship in Islamic studies and linguistics, and his commitment to building Australia’s language and cultural capability. Professor Johns’ advocacy for a holistic understanding of language, culture and religion transformed Australian teaching and diplomacy in the 1970s. This award is a well-deserved recognition of lifetime service to Australia.”

“We’re incredibly proud of our Fellows’ outstanding contributions, it is wonderful to see them recognised on the national stage,” said Professor Elizabeth Minchin.

Dr Phillip Adams AC FAHA FRSA

Woollahra, Sydney. Broadcaster, Phillip Adams, relaxing at home. Photo: Quentin Jones. Feb 8, 2011. The Guide.

Recognised for eminent service to broadcast media, to journalism, to the arts, to cultural leadership, and to the community.

For over three decades, Phillip Adams AC FAHA FRSA was one of the most recognisable voices in Australian broadcasting as the host of Late Night Live on ABC Radio.

In addition to broadcasting, Adams’s remarkable career spans advertising, film production, and media; his first newspaper columns appeared over 50 years ago. He continues to write regularly for The Weekend Australian.

In 1969, Adams authored a report which convinced Prime Minister John Gorton to establish the Australian Film and Television Development Corporation and the Experimental Film Fund—crucial foundations for our film industry. As a producer of 14 films, including The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Adams has championed the Australian film industry since 1970.

In 1979, a portrait of Adams painted by Wes Walters won the Archibald Prize. He has honorary doctorates from Griffith University, Edith Cowan University and the University of Sydney. In 2012, he was recognised as one of Australia’s 100 National Living Treasures.

Twice acknowledged in the Order of Australia honours, Adams’s top honour reflects his longstanding contribution to Australian arts and humanities.

Professor John (J. M.) Coetzee AC FAHA

For eminent service to the arts, particularly literature, to literary studies, to tertiary education, and to animal welfare.

J. M. Coetzee. Courtesy of Text Publishing.

Nobel Prize laureate J. M. Coetzee AC FAHA is one of the world’s most important contemporary voices—a writer whose novels like Disgrace and Waiting for the Barbarians have challenged readers around the world to think deeply about power, identity, justice and what it means to be human.

Having worked between Australia, the United States and South Africa, Professor Coetzee has been Professor of Literature at the University of Adelaide since 2002. He is patron of the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice (JMCCCP), a research centre and cultural hub founded at the University of Adelaide in 2015.

In 2003, Professor Coetzee received the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is also one of four authors to have won the Booker Prize twice, in 1983 and 1999.

This AC recognition is a well-earned acknowledgment of a remarkable career that has enriched not just the discipline of English literature, but readers globally.

Emeritus Professor Anthony Johns AM FAHA

For significant service to tertiary education, particularly to language and culture.

Professor Anthony Johns AM. Supplied.

A distinguished scholar of tremendous breadth, Professor Anthony Johns AM FAHA is a pioneering scholar whose work has transformed our understanding of language and religion in Southeast Asia and the fascinating dynamics of how religious traditions spread across cultures and borders.

In 1971, Professor Johns became Australia’s first Professor of Indonesian Language and Literature, building a field of language and culture study, introducing Bahasa Indonesia to the Australian National University (ANU) and later expanding to include Malay and Javanese languages.

Throughout his career, he championed the importance of deep linguistic competence combined with a genuine understanding of history and religion – an approach that has influenced generations of students and researchers.

Since his retirement in 1994, he has continued his studies of the Qur’an and the development of Islamic learning and spirituality in Indonesia and Malaysia. ANU honors his legacy with a lecture series that promotes understanding of Southeast Asia in Australia.

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