The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australian Government.
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History
The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969. Its antecedent was the Australian Humanities Research Council (AHRC), which was convened informally in 1954 through the combined efforts of Brian R. Elliott and Professor A. N. Jeffares, who organised preliminary meetings in Melbourne of delegates drawn from the Faculties of Arts in Australian universities. The AHRC was a positive force in education and scholarship, and its activities gradually evolved, especially in its support for national projects in the humanities. Recognition among the AHRC executive of the changing functions of the Council led in 1967 to the proposal of establishing an Academy. Royal consent was granted to the petition on 25 June 1969, and Letters Patent issued, constituting the Academy from that date. The Academy's Foundation Fellows were the members the AHRC.
The highest distinction in scholarship in the humanities was required of candidates for election to the Fellowship of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. The first intake comprising sixteen Fellows (including Geoffrey Blainey, Kenneth Inglis, John Mulvaney, David Monro, Franz Philipp, Saiyid Rizvi, Oskar Spate and Judith Wright) and one Honorary Fellow (J. C. Beaglehole) were elected by the fifty-one Foundation Fellows at a Special General Meeting on 20–21 September 1969. Annual elections have taken place since that time.
For an account of the debates and efforts that led to the establishment of the Academy, see the article by Graeme Davison FAHA in the inaugural edition of Humanities Australia: 'Phoenix Rising: The Academy and the Humanities in 1969'.
Governance
The Academy is governed by a Council of leaders in the humanities, elected from among its Fellows, who provide strategic direction, policy guidance, and management oversight. The Council meets four times a year. A Canberra-based Secretariat is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Academy. In February 2023 Inga Davis succeeded Christina Parolin as executive director.
Council in 2026
President: Professor Stephen Garton AM FAHA FRAHS FASSA FRSN (elected November 2020)
Vice-President & Honorary Secretary: Emeritus Professor Joanne Tompkins FAHA
International Secretary: Professor Véronique Duché FAHA
Treasurer: Professor Chris Hilliard FAHA
Editor: Professor Louise Edwards FAHA FASSA FHKAH
Immediate Past President: Professor Lesley Head FAHA FASSA
Members: Associate Professor Sarah Collins FAHA, Distinguished Professor Jean Burgess FAHA, Professor Emerita Susan Dodds FAHA, Professor Yixu Lu FAHA, Professor Christina Twomey FAHA FASSA
Fellowship
The Academy comprises a Fellowship of over 730 of the most influential humanities researchers and practitioners in, or associated with, Australia. The post-nominal abbreviation for a Fellow of the Academy is FAHA.
The following twelve disciplines serve as the Fellowship's electoral sections:
Archaeology
Asian Studies
Classical Studies
Cultural and Communication Studies
English
European Languages and Cultures
History
Indigenous Studies
Linguistics
Philosophy and the History of Ideas
Religion
The Arts
Election to the Academy takes place at the Annual general meeting, following nomination by Council on the advice of the twelve electoral sections.
Foundation Fellows
At the date of the grant of the Royal Charter establishing the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1969, there were 51 Members of the AHRC who became the Foundation Fellows of the new Academy.
An asterisk denotes a Fellow who was also a Foundation Member of the AHRC.
David Malet Armstrong
James Johnston Auchmuty*
Arthur Llewellyn Basham
Flora Marjorie Bassett
John Bowman
Ernest Bramsted
Joseph Terence Burke*
Alexander Cambitoglou
Alan Rowland Chisholm*
Charles Manning Hope Clark
Raymond Maxwell Crawford*
William Culican
William Allan Edwards*
Brian Elliott
Ralph Elliott
Ralph Barstow Farrell*
Charles Patrick Fitzgerald
Kathleen Elizabeth Fitzpatrick*
Alexander Boyce Gibson*
Gordon Greenwood*
(William) Keith Hancock
Honorary Foundation Fellows
Claude Thomas Bissell
Herbert Cole Coombs
Alexander Norman Jeffares
John McManners
Robert (Gordon) Menzies
Kenneth Baillieu Myer
Harold (Leslie) White
Other academies
There are four other Learned Academies in Australia: the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA), the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science (AAHMS). The five academies co-operate through the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA), formed in 2010.