30 new Fellows elected to Humanities Academy

Pictured: New AAH Fellow, Professor Katerina Teaiwa FAHA

The Australian Academy of the Humanities has today announced the election of 30 new Fellows.

Fellows are among the nation’s most influential thinkers, providing insight essential to Australia’s social, cultural and democratic life.

“The Academy’s Fellows are at the forefront of understanding global cultural, social and historical foundations — knowledge that is essential to shaping a more inclusive, resilient and creative nation. Their work enhances Australia’s ability to navigate global uncertainty, technological disruption and rapid social change,” said Academy President Professor Stephen Garton AM FAHA FASSA FRAHS FRSN.

Among the 30 new Fellows are:

• Professor Katerina Teaiwa FAHA, whose landmark publication Consuming Ocean Island (2015) exposed, for the first time, the long-term effects of phosphate mining in Banaba. 

• Dr Terri Janke FAHA, an Indigenous lawyer, owner of the largest Indigenous owned legal firm in Australia, and an international authority on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property. 

• Professor Ramon Lobato FAHA, a distinguished media studies expert concerned with the influence and disruption of online video content on audiences, industry and policy. 

“What distinguishes the Academy is its ability to bring together the very best humanities minds to address the most pressing issues facing Australia. The collective expertise of our Fellows — from First Nations knowledge leadership to digital cultures, ethics, heritage and languages — is a national asset,” said Professor Garton.

“Each of the Fellows elected today exemplifies the many ways the humanities deepen our understanding of the world and help shape its future.”

2025 Fellows

Associate Professor Mark Allon FAHA, the University of Sydney

An internationally acclaimed researcher of early Buddhist manuscripts.

Associate Professor Tomoko Aoyama FAHA, The University of Queensland

An acclaimed scholar of Japanese Literature and Literary Translation.

Associate Professor Debbie Bargallie FAHA, Griffith University

A Kamilaroi and Wonnarua scholar internationally recognised for her groundbreaking work on systemic racism, Indigenous identity, and workplace equity.

Professor Jennifer Biddle FAHA, UNSW

A visual anthropologist of Aboriginal art, language, emotion and culture.

Professor Gawaian Bodkin-Andrews FAHA, Western Sydney University

A leading D’harawal scholar whose research spans Indigenous knowledges and storywork, data sovereignty, environmental justice, and racial equity.

Associate Professor Matthew Crawford FAHA, the Australian Catholic University

One of Australia’s leading scholars of early Christian Studies.

Professor Caillan Davenport FAHA, the Australian National University

A distinguished classicist with expertise in the Ancient Mediterranean world.

Professor Katie Ellis FAHA, Curtin University

A world-leading scholar of disability, media and popular culture.

Professor Rachel Fensham FAHA, the University of Melbourne

A leading scholar of dance and performance studies.

Professor Alice Gaby FAHA, Monash University

A distinguished non-Indigenous linguist who has supported language reclamation efforts in communities around Australia.

Professor Debjani Ganguly FAHA, the Australian Catholic University

An acclaimed scholar of postcolonial studies, world and comparative literature, the environmental humanities, and South Asian literary studies.

Professor Martin Gibbs FAHA, the University of New England

An expert on Australian-Pacific historical and maritime archaeology.

Associate Professor Natalie Harkin FAHA, Flinders University

An award-winning Narungga poet and scholar, internationally recognised for her poetry, performance and research on the history of Aboriginal women’s domestic service and labour.

Associate Professor Ian Hesketh FAHA, the University of Queensland

A scholar of the history of Darwinism, the histories of science and religion, and Big History.

Professor Anna Johnston FAHA, the University of Queensland

A distinguished literary historian respected for her innovative, cross- disciplinary contributions to colonial and postcolonial studies.

Professor Cheryl Kickett-Tucker AM FAHA, Curtin University

A proud Aboriginal Western Australian and Wadjuk traditional owner and custodian of Balladong and Yued country, a prolific Aboriginal researcher and children’s book author.  

Professor Mark Ledbury FAHA, the University of Sydney

A distinguished scholars of art and theatre studies who has deepened our understanding of 18th and 19th-century European painting and theatre. 

Professor Ramon Lobato FAHA, Swinburne University

An author, researcher and scholar of cultural industries, with expertise in online film and television distribution.

Professor Susan Luckman FAHA, the University of South Australia

An ethnographer of creativity and cultural work particularly of the widespread surge of interest in craft and handmade culture.

Associate Professor Christopher Roy Marshall FAHA, the University of Melbourne

A prolific researcher of Italian Baroque Art and contemporary museology who specialises in socio-economic questions of art, as well as contemporary viewing strategies. 

Associate Professor Tamson Pietsch FAHA, the University of Technology Sydney

An internationally renowned scholar of the global history and politics of knowledge and its production.

Professor Philip Piper FAHA, the Australian National University

A distinguished archaeologist, specialising in Southeast Asian vertebrate zooarchaeology, focusing on human-animal interactions.

Professor Gillian K Russell, the Australian National University

A distinguished philosopher concerned with foundational questions in philosophical logic. 

Professor Gaye Sculthorpe FAHA, Deakin University

A palawa woman from Tasmania, distinguished scholar, and museum curator whose work has transformed global understandings of Australian Indigenous histories, material culture and community heritage.

Professor Katerina Teaiwa FAHA, the Australian National University

An interdisciplinary scholar of Pacific history, Pacific arts and the Pacific environment.

Emeritus Professor Paul Turnbull FAHA, the University of Tasmania

A distinguished historian of the scientific theft and uses of the bodily remains of Australian First Nations peoples, and the history of comparative human anatomy and anthropology from the Enlightenment to the early 20th century.

Professor Andrekos Varnava FAHA, Flinders University

An internationally recognized scholar of the history of the modern British empire and a pre-eminent specialist of the history of Cyprus under British rule.

Corresponding Fellow

Corresponding Fellows are elected in recognition of their outstanding contribution in a humanities discipline, but do not usually reside in Australia.

Professor Elleke Boehmer FAHA FRSL FRHistS, The University of Oxford

A founding figure in the field of colonial and postcolonial literary studies, and internationally known for her research in the anglophone literatures of empire and anti-empire.

Honorary Fellows

Honorary Fellows are elected in recognition of their significant contribution to the Humanities and the arts, and to Australian cultural life.

Dr Terri Janke FAHA

A trailblazer in Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights and leader in First Nations recognition, engagement and advancement in Australia’s national institutions, including in the museums sector and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Dr Meredith Lake FAHA

A celebrated public historian, scholar, and broadcaster specialising in Australian religious history.

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