RSSS Highlights 2023

RSSS Building - Photo Adam Spence

Monday 18 December 2023

At the Research School of Social Sciences, we like to celebrate our people, so please see below some of the many highlights involving members of RSSS in 2023 —it is truly a remarkable list!

Appointments

Prof Robert Ackland (SOCY) has been invited to be a member of the International Panel on the Information Environment, led by the University of Oxford
Dr Mohammed Al-Sudairi (CAIS) was appointed to the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung fellowship in Germany
Prof Nick Biddle (CSRM) was appointed a member of the Australian Statistics Advisory Council
Prof Nick Biddle (CSRM) was chosen as Australian country representative, World Association for Public Opinion Research
Prof Nick Biddle (CSRM) was appointed committee member for System 2 (not for profit research organisation run by the UK Government Behavioural Insights Team)
Prof Frank Bongiorno was elected President Council for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (SoH)
Prof Nicholas Brown (SoH) has been appointed Visiting Professor in Australian Studies at the University of Tokyo
Prof Valerie Cooms (CAEPR) was appointed to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s First Nations Advisory Committee
Prof Valerie Cooms (CAEPR) was appointed, by invitation, a member of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water First Nations Advisory Committee by Ministers Bowen and Burney
Prof Garrett Cullity (SOP) was appointed section head for Philosophy and History of Ideas of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
A/Prof Tracy Fenwick was elected to the Council of Research Committee (RC19) Social Policy and Welfare of the International Sociological Association
A/Prof Tracy Fenwick was appointed as an honorary research fellow for five years to the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen’s University Canada
A/Prof Tracy Fenwick (SPIR) was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Comparative Federalism (EURAC), Bolzano, Italy
Prof Matthew Gray was elected President for the World Association for Public Opinion Research, Asia Pacific Chapter
Prof Paul Jones (SOCY) was elected to the Board of the History of Sociology Research Committee (RC08) of the International Sociological Association
Prof in Practice Andrew Norton invited to be on the Ministerial Reference Group for the Australian Universities Accord
A/Prof Ben Phillips was appointed to the government’s Economic Inclusion Committee
A/Prof Joanna Sikora (SOCY) was elected as the Vice President for Oceania on the Board of Research Committee (RC04) Sociology of Education of the International Sociological Association
Prof Bruce Smyth and Prof Matthew Gray (CSRM) were appointed to the government’s Child Support Expert Panel

Prizes and Awards

Prof Nicholas Biddle, Prof Matthew Gray and A/Prof Ben Phillips (CSRM) won the Foundation for International Studies in Social Security Best Paper Prize 2023
Prof Frank Bongiorno (SoH) won the 2023 ACT Book of the Year for Dreamers and Schemers
Former Master’s student Liza Brachtendorf (CSRM) received a University Medal for her Master's Thesis
Dr Katherine Carroll, Dr Debbie Noble-Car and Prof Catherine Waldby (SOCY) won a CASS Excellence in Research award for their innovative work with the Lactation After Loss quilt
PhD Student Daniel Casey (SPIR) won The World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) Naomi C. Turner Award for best paper by an HDR
PhD Student Daniel Casey (SPIR) The Australian Political Studies Association Prize for the best paper by an HDR student at their annual conference this year
PhD student Shalom Chalson (SoP) won the Australasian Association of Philosophy Postgraduate Presentation Prize
Former PhD student Simon Copland (SOCY) won the 2022 Gender Institute Prize for Excellence in Gender and Sexuality Research for his doctoral thesis titled Reddit, The Manosphere and The Male Complaint
PhD student, Ruby Ekkel (SoH), won the 2023 Ken Inglis Postgraduate Prize
Prof Brian Hedden (SoP) received a CASS Award for Excellence in Advancing Research
PhD student Thomas Lalevée (SoH) was chosen the recipient of the Malony Prize for 2022 for his thesis, From Perfectibility to Progress: The Search for a Science of Society in France, 1750-1850
Former PhD student Sharon Koshy (SOCY) was awarded International Studentship for her doctoral studies
PhD student James Lim (SoP) received the 2023 ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Tutoring or Demonstrating
Dr Shannyn Palmer, whose PhD was supervised by Maria Nugent, with panel members Ann McGrath and Martin Thomas (SoH), has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Literary Award in Australian History. Unmaking Angas Downs: Myth and History on a Central Australian Pastoral Station, based on her thesis, was praised as a book that ‘invites new ways of reading, as well as writing, the history of a colonised nation
Prof Philip Pettit (SoP) was awarded the 2023 Special Jury Prize at the Sakip Sabanci International Research Awards
Two teams from the ANU School of Philosophy competed at the 2023 International Ethics Olympiad, taking home the Gold and Bronze medals.
History Honours student, Wyatt Raynall, supervised by Prof Carolyn Strange (SoH), awarded the University Medal with Concentration in History
PhD student Aidan Ryall (SoP) was selected by the Australasian Association of Philosophy to co-produce one of the Centenary episodes of The Philosopher’s Zone on the topic of “women and the [philosophical] canon.”
PhD student Zoe Smith (SoH) was awarded the 2023 Max Kelly Award from the History Council of New South Wales for her essay, '"A prisoner on the rack": Marital rape in late-nineteenth-century colonial women’s fiction'
Prof Nic Southwood (SoP) was awarded the 2023 GRIPP Annual Montreal Political Theory Manuscript Workshop Award
Dr. Ibu Suharti, a PhD graduate from the School of Demography, was awarded the ANU International Alumnus of 2023
PhD student Zhihe Zhang (SoP) was selected to be a participant at the Open Student Workshop on Global Priorities Research, organised by the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford

Consultancies and Grants

CAIS staff delivered a Middle East Literacy Consultancy to DFAT, Defence and ONI Staff
CSRM and the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health were successful in a grant to deliver training services to the Department of Health and Aged Care on the analysis of large-linked government data
A collaborative team from CAEPR and CSRM have been successfully awarded a research consultancy with the Australian Productivity Commission, titled Review of Methods for Assessing Progress Towards Closing the Gap
Prof Lorana Bartels, Dr Sally Eales, Prof Meredith Rossner, and Dr Helen Taylor (CSRM), Provision of Evidence-based research to explore options for the expansion of Adult Restorative Justice Conferencing in Queensland, Contracted by Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney General
Prof Lorana Bartels, Dr Aino Suomi, Dr Hayley Boxall, Dr Sally Eales, and Prof Meredith Rossner (CSRM), Review of the ACT Care and Protection Intensive List, ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate
Prof Nick Biddle and Prof Matthew Gray (CSRM) - Next Generational Artificial Intelligence Graduate Program
Prof Nick Biddle, Dr Rob Bray, Mr Christian Eva, Prof Matthew Gray, A/Prof Deirdre Howard-Wagner, and Dr Francis Markham (CSRM and CAEPR) were contracted for their project Closing the Gap Priority Reforms performance measurement project 2023-24; by the National Indigenous Australian Agencies
Prof Nick Biddle, Prof Matthew Gray, Mr Bob Breunig (Crawford), A/Prof Steve McEachern (CSRM), Prof Rosemary Korda (CHM), Prof Kerry Taylor (CECC) were contracted by the ABS to undertake EL2 Data Leadership Course Design and Delivery
Dr Emily Corner (CSRM) received a CASS Award for Excellence in Advancing Research
Dr Emily Corner (CSRM) was awarded a research contract with NSW Police, titled Evaluation of the Known Entity Management (KEM) Model
Dr Emily Corner (CSRM) received funding from the US Department of Homeland Security for Grievance-fuelled targeted violence in the United States: Understanding drivers to mobilization
Dr Emily Corner and Dr Helen Taylor (CSRM) were awarded a National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grant: Intelligence Challenges, securing funding from the Office of National Intelligence, for their project Beyond Taxonomy: A process Driven Investigation of Radicalisation
Dr Mark Dawson (SoH) received funding from the Australian Research Council for his Discovery Project Living with Smallpox in Early Modern Britain (c. 1580-1780 CE)
Prof Keith Dowding (SPIR) alongside international researchers, was awarded a DFG (German Science Foundation) for Institutional Rules and their Effects on Cabinet and Ministerial Durability in Advanced Democracies
Prof Ben Edwards, Prof Matthew Gray and Mr Andrew Norton (CSRM) received a contract for their Project GENERATION Wave 3
Prof Matthew Gray and Dr Rob Bray (CSRM), DSS Financial Wellbeing and Capability Programs: Review of the Demand and Funding Allocation Mechanisms, Department of Social Services
Prof Matthew Gray and A/Prof Ben Phillips, Economic analysis of possible increases in the Parenting Payment Single, Paul Ramsay Foundation
Prof Darren Halpin's (SPIR) Major Equipment proposal Establishing a Database of Full-text News Media for ANU Researchers is funded by ANU
A/Prof Brian Houle (SoD) was awarded as a Sub-recipient of an externally led project, funded by the National Institute of Health, titled Intergenerational Intervention: Employing Youth to Promote Aging Healthy with HIV in rural South Africa
A/Prof Deirdre Howard-Wagner (CAEPR), Prof Nicholas Biddle (CSRM), Prof Valerie Cooms (CAEPR), Dr Yonatan Dinku (CAEPR), Prof Ben Edwards (CSRM), Dr Francis Markham (CAEPR) and Dr Mandy Yap (CAEPR) received funding for a longitudinal study on the social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous children
A/Prof Deirdre Howard-Wagner, Prof Valerie Cooms, Dr Francis Markham and Dr Mandy Yap (CAEPR) won a research consultancy with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
Dr Anas Iqtait (CAIS) and Dr Jessie Moritz (CAIS) have won a DFAT CAAR (Council for Australian Arab Relations) grant on GCC-Australia Summit on Decarbonising Energy and Agriculture
Dr Maria Jahromi and Prof Matthew Gray (CSRM), Review of the Sustained Employment Module Assessment Model, Report to the Department of Education and Workplace Relations
Dr Maria Jahromi and Prof Matthew Gray (CSRM), Review of the application of statistical models previously proposed for the Sustained Employment Module of the Provider Performance Framework. Report to the Department of Education and Workplace Relations.
Prof Helen Keane (SOCY) with researchers from Deakin University has won an ARC Discovery Grant to investigate the relationship between trauma and alcohol and other drug-related problems
Prof Colin Klein (SoP) was awarded two ARC Discovery Grants: i) “Finding equivalence between natural and artificial intelligences” with Prof. Andrew Barron (Macquarie), and “Trust & Distrust in Social Epistemic Networks” with Prof. Mark Alfano (Macquarie)
Prof Colin Klein (SoP), together with collaborators Andy Baron (Macquarie) and Marta Halina (Cambridge), awarded additional funds from the Templeton World Charities Foundation to extend their project, "Major Transitions in the Evolution of Cognition.”
Dr Julie Lahn (CAEPR) received funding from the Australian Research Council for her Discover Project, titled Valuing Torres Strait Knowledge through Sustainable Digital Returns
Prof Seth Lazar (SoP) was awarded a grant from AI2050 for his work building the field of normative philosophy of computing
Prof Seth Lazar (SoP) was awarded a Schmidt Futures Grant
Dr Patrick Leslie (SPIR), is part of a team (led by the University of Holloway) that received an ESRC grant for the project Politician’s Temporal Focus
Dr Darren Lim (SPIR) awarded a research consultancy with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Standards-taking power in Southeast Asia
Dr Darren Lim (SPIR) was awarded a consultancy with the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources, titled The Geopolitics of international standard setting
Prof Adrian Mackenzie (SOCY) awarded a research consultancy with Atlas of Living Australia to develop transformative engagements with biodiversity data using interdisciplinary design-sociology methods
Dr Francis Markham (CAEPR) was awarded an ARC DECRA award for On the Wealth of First Nations: Examining the Indigenous-settler wealth gap
Dr Francis Markham, A/Prof Deirdre Howard-Wagner and Ms Isabel Palm (CAEPR) were awarded a research consultancy to evaluate the MPRHBC Project and the RAHLA Agreement
Pro Ian McAllister and Pro Annika Werner (SPIR) have won an ARC Discovery Project grant for research on understanding what affects government popularity and how it shapes the health of democracy
Ms Anne McNaughton (CES) received funding from the European Commission for her work EU Research and Education Network on Foreign Policy Issues: Values and Democracy
Dr Ben Mercer (SoH), president of the Australasian Association for European History, received funding for a special event on Ukraine as part of its annual conference
Dr Jessie Moritz and A/Prof Kirill Nourzhanov (CAIS) were awarded an ICEDS grant on Australian Climate and Energy Security: Building Community of Practice
Prof Melanie Nolan and Emeritus Prof Tom Griffiths (SoH) received a large grant from the J.T. Reid Charitable Trusts for the First Nations Biography Australia (FNBA) project, 2024-2026
A/Prof Natalie Nitsche (SoD) was awarded funding through the ANU Futures Scheme
Dr Maria Nugent (SoH) received Philanthropic grant funding for her work Mobilising Aboriginal History Programs
Dr Marnie O’Bryan (CSRM) was awarded a research contract by the Laynhapuy Homelands Association, titled Laynhapuy Homelands Association: Housing and Infrastructure Review
Dr Marnie O’Bryan (CSRM) was awarded a research contract from the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, titled School Engagement of Aboriginal Students and their families from Regional and remote areas project evaluation
Dr James O'Donnell (SoD) recently launched the 2023 Mapping Social Cohesion report, drawing attention to the top issues impacting Australians' sense of belonging, pride, and social cohesion in 2023
Dr James O'Donnell (SoD) won an ARC DECRA Award for Demographic and life course drivers of social cohesion
Dr Rebecca Pearse (SOCY) was awarded a grant from the Climate Social Science Network in late 2022. The project titled Land in Australian and New Zealand Climate Policy, 1990 – 2007 will run for two years between 2022 and 2023
A/Prof Ben Phillips (CSRM), Housing Cost Trends and Projections, projections produced for Treasury
A/Prof Ben Phillips, Mr Richard Webster and Ms Cukkoo Joseph (CSRM), A fairer tax and welfare system for Australia, Report for the St Vincent de Paul Society
Prof James Raymer and Prof Edith Gray (DEMO) were awarded funding to advise the ACT Chief Minister Treasury and Economic Development Directorate on demographic trends in the ACT
Prof Meredith Rossner (CSRM) was awarded a research consultancy from the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General, titled Service Provision of Adult Restorative Justice across Queensland
Prof Meredith Rossner and Prof Lorana Bartels (CSRM) awarded funding for a project Survivor-centred Restorative Justice in response to sexual violence: Mapping practice and potential
Dr Ben Silverstein (SoH), received funding through the CASS Small Grants scheme for his project, Connecting with Yawuru cultural knowledge at Didirrgun/Kennedy Hill
Dr Filip Slaveski (SoH) was awarded funding through the ANU Futures Scheme
Dr Diane Smith (CAEPR) 'Longitudinal Evaluation and Monitoring of the QSNTS People, Place and Partnerships Program'. Funder: Queensland South Native Title Services, Consultancy.
Prof Gavin Smith (SOCY) was awarded the maximum Environment Grant from the ACT Government for his cutting-edge interdisciplinary work on urban wildlife relations
Dr Ralf Steinhauser (CSRM) received funding as a member of a successful ARC Linkage project, aiming to design and test a range of behavioural nudges to improve the environmental behaviour of ACT residents
Dr Aino Suomi (CSRM) was awarded a grant by the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling for 'Family and domestic violence and gambling harm: Developing the evidence-base for prevention programs and intervention services in NSW'
Dr Aino Suomi (CSRM) 'Secondary analysis of 2019 ACT Gambling Survey'. Funder: ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety, Consultancy
Dr Marija Taflaga, Keith Dowding, Kenneth Benoit, Patrick Leslie (SPIR) ‘Australian Parliamentary Speech: How Deliberative? How Representative?’ARC Discovery Project
Prof Angela Woollacott (SoH) was awarded the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia; Grant for ‘Decolonisation in Australia and our region in the 20th Century and Today’
Prof Angela Woollacott (SoH) ‘Challenging colonialism: Australians who helped us embrace human equality’; Australian Research Council, DP23
Dr Matt Withers (SOCY) ‘Together, Apart: Transnational Family Separation in the PALM Scheme’; was awarded funding through the ANU Futures Scheme
Dr Brandon Yoder (SPIR) was awarded CAP Australian Centre on China in the World Grant for ‘Debating China in Australia: Expert Communities, Opinion Sharing, and Foreign Policymaking’

Honours, Residencies, Fellowships, Public Lectures

Prof Rob Ackland and Dr Francisca Borquez (SOCY) are involved in the Expert Working Group, providing input to the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA), as it develops its Decadal Plan for Social Science Research Infrastructure 2023-32
Prof Christian Barry (Directorate) was a visiting fellow at the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford
Prof Christian Barry (Directorate) gave the annual lecture in Social and Political Philosophy at the Dianoia Institute
Prof Frank Bongiorno (SoH) was invited by the Menzies Australia Institute to deliver the 2023 Menzies lecture
A/Prof Rachael Brown (SoP) presented the Dyason Lecture at the AAHPSSS conference at the University of Sydney
Dr Katherine Carroll (SOCY) was invited to provide a Lactation After Loss workshop using the lactation after loss commemorative quilt with the Miracle Babies Foundation as part of their annual national training conference for their Nurture Program workforce
Dr Burcu-Cevik Compiegne (CAIS) was the recipient of the National Library of Australia Fellowship
Prof Keith Dowding (SPIR) was a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford
Prof Alan Hajek (SoP) presented the Sainsbury Lecture at Kings College London
Prof Alan Hajek (SoP) was a visiting fellow at the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford in June
Dr Anas Iqtait (CAIS) served as a non-resident scholar with the Middle East Institute (United States)
Prof Fiona Jenkins (SOP) presented the inaugural Women in Philosophy Lecture at Macquarie University
Prof Karima Laachir (CAIS) was invited to present in the Global Doha Forum, Qatar
Prof Seth Lazar (SoP) presented the Tanner Lectures in AI and Human Values at Stanford University
Prof Ann McGrath (SoH) was elected as member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Prof Victoria McGeer and Prof Philip Pettit (SoP) held fellowships at the Centre for Advanced Studies, Humboldt-Frei University Berlin from September to November 2023
Dr Jessie Moritz (CAIS) was offered the Knowing the World Sabbatical Fellowship at Institute for Middle East Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
Dr Rebecca Pearse was invited to join the Australia Institute Research Committee, an advisory board of academics and other policy experts that contributes to the Institute’s internal review processes
Prof Philip Pettit presented the inaugural Condorcet Lecture at the Sorbonne, Paris
Prof Mary Lou Rasmussen (SOCY) has been re-invited as a member of a new Expert Advisory Committee - the LGBTIQ+ Expert Advisory Committee - for the 2026 ABS Census
Prof Mary Lou Rasmussen (SOCY) delivered the 2023 Radford lecture at the Australian Association for Research in Education conference
Prof Mary Lou Rasmussen (SOCY) delivered a plenary lecture at the International Sociological Association (ISA) World Congress of Sociology event in Melbourne
Prof Celia Roberts (SOCY) delivered a keynote lecture on "Contributing to and with Feminist STS" at the AusSTS Conference
Prof Gavin Smith (SOCY) organised an interdisciplinary workshop on the topic, Towards Ecosocial Cities? Urban-Nature Encounters and Relations, which featured papers from geographical, sociological, anthropological, ecological, policy and Indigenous perspectives.
Prof Gavin Smith (SOCY) has been made a Visiting Scientist in the CSIRO Environment Business Unit
Prof Nic Southwood (SoP) was Chair of a Council for Higher Education Committee evaluating the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, and Ben Gurion University Philosophy departments and the state of Philosophy in Israel
Prof Katie Steele (SoP) presented the Parfit Lecture at the University of Oxford
Prof Katie Steele (SoP) was a visiting fellow at the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford in June
Prof Kim Sterelny (SoP) presented the Rudolf Carnap Lectures at the Institute for Philosophy, Ruhr University Bochum
Dr Zahra Taheri (CAIS) was appointed Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Middle East Studies at the University of University of California, Berkeley
Dr Jess Urwin (SoH) was one of three ECRs selected by the Australian Studies Institute to attend the 2023 ‘winter’ institute at the New Institute in Hamburg, Germany in November
Prof Catherine Waldby (SOCY) delivered a keynote at the Conference: ‘Reproductive Trouble? Technology, Gender, Politics' held at the University of Geneva
Dr Matt Withers (SOCY) presented research findings at the Pacific Labour Mobility Annual Meeting (PLMAM), held in Port Vila and attended by over 400 stakeholder representatives