Two academics from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences have been elected as Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia for their distinguished contributions to their disciplines.
Professor Katharine Gelber and Professor Roland Bleiker, both from the School of Political Sciences and International Studies, will be formally welcomed and inducted at the Academy’s General Meeting and Annual Symposium to be held in Adelaide in October.
Professor Gelber said she was honoured to be recognised for her contribution to the social sciences.
“I specialise in free speech and the regulation of harmful speech,” she said.
“This topic is even more important today than it was when I started over 20 years ago.
“Ensuring people have freedom of speech, and that they are able to exercise their freedom in a way that does not harm others through their own words, is complex.
“We can see this in the current debate about how people campaign for the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ cases for marriage equality.
“Words matter.”
Professor Roland Bleiker’s research brings questions of aesthetics, visuality and emotions to the study of world politics.
“I am honoured to be recognised by the Academy, not least because my work has always explored interdisciplinary and somewhat non-traditional ways of understanding political problems,” he said.
“Doing so is important because these often neglected everyday phenomena significantly shape key political events, from diplomacy and humanitarian crisis to terrorism and election campaigns.”
The Faculty currently has 19 Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences and 30 Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
