UOW academic elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities

Dec 03, 2004

Cultural geography, archaeology and palaeoecology are her research passions and her work has taken her all over Australia.

It's been a busy few years for Professor Lesley Head from the University of Wollongong's Earth and Environmental Sciences Unit, who bridges Earth Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities in her research, and has made important contributions to Aboriginal and theoretical archaeology.

These contributions were acknowledged recently when she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities for interdisciplinary approaches to archaeological and geographical research.

The Academy, established by Royal Charter in 1969, encourages and supports Australian scholarship in the humanities through a range of activities and programs. Fellows elected to the Academy are residents of Australia who have achieved the highest distinction in scholarship in the humanities.

Professor Head has worked in many parts of Australia such as the Kimberly, the Flinders Ranges, and Alice Springs. She is the coordinator of the GeoQuest Research Centre and has received more than $750,000 in research funding from local, state and national organisations.

“My research interests focus on long term changes in the Australian landscape and the interactions of both prehistoric and contemporary peoples with these environments,” she said.

Professor Head is also the author of two internationally published books, Second Nature: The history and implications of Australia as Aboriginal landscape (Syracuse University Press, New York) and Cultural Landscapes and Environmental Change (Arnold, London).

She delivered a public presentation of her research at the recent Frontiers in Science lecture. Frontiers in Science provides an opportunity for members of the broader community, along with staff and students of the UOW, to attend and participate in discussions pertaining to current research within the Faculty of Science. The presenters are world leaders in their respective fields of research.

Professor Head spoke about the similarities between suburban backyards and Aboriginal lands. She explained that understanding the cultural basis of decision making, particularly in the environments we most take for granted, is an important factor in a variety of land and resource management debates in Australia.

In addition to this distinguished election to Fellow, Professor Head has been awarded a King Carl XVI Gustaf Visiting Professorship in Environmental Studies through the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education.

-RP