15 October 2012
Professor Anthony Elliott has commenced as the new Director of the University of South Australia’s Hawke Research Institute, where he will provide leadership for an enhanced program of publicly engaged social science – both in Australia and globally.
“The Hawke Research Institute is unique in Australian higher education”, says Professor Elliott. “It is Australia’s largest centre of social science research and over the years has made a vital contribution to informing public debate”.
Engaging with significant national and international issues is fundamental, and Professor Elliott says the Institute will now develop an even more intensive global outlook.
He says his appointment, along with a large team of researchers he has brought with him to the Hawke, represents a significant new investment in the Institute and its role as a leader in social science research.
A world-renowned social scientist, Professor Elliott was previously Chair of Sociology at Flinders University and Visiting Research Professor at the UK’s Open University. He is an Australian citizen - but has lived and worked for many years in the UK.
He took his PhD at Cambridge University (where he was supervised by Lord Anthony Giddens, architect of the Blair Government’s Third Way). Highly productive, he was appointed to a research chair in his early thirties and subsequently became Professor of Sociology at the prestigious University of Kent at Canterbury, prior to returning to Australia.
The author of over 25 books, translated into more than a dozen languages, Elliott has sought to connect social theory to popular culture, communication, new information technologies and globalization. His books have reached well beyond the academy, and several – including The New Individualism and Concepts of the Self – have become academic best-sellers.
Professor Elliott says the Hawke Research Institute is now positioned to move to a new level of engagement.
“The Hawke Research Institute is unique in Australian higher education, with world class research innovation driven by its individual and teams research around issues of great significance to Australian communities,” he says.
“In the future we will be harnessing that outward-looking and relevant approach to develop a more intensive research agenda that works in the global context.”
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli office: 08 8302 0966 mobile: 0418 823 673 email: michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
