Eminent historian Professor Joy Damousi has won a lifetime achievement award from the Australian Historical Association (AHA).
Professor Damousi is the Director of ACU’s Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, leading cutting-edge research on migration, gender and post-colonial history.
The AHA’s inaugural lifetime achievement awards honour trailblazing historians who have made a significant, positive contribution to the field in Australia.
Professor Damousi was singled out for her historical scholarship, mentoring and academic leadership.
In a career spanning more than three decades, her work has been integral to an understanding of Australian social and cultural history. Her research is impressively varied, traversing everything from feminism and transnationalism to violence and psychoanalysis, refugees and migration.
Professor Damousi is recognised as one of the nation’s leading public intellectuals and is a past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Australian Historical Association.
Professor Damousi said she was “deeply honoured” to receive the award.
“To receive this generous recognition from my peers and colleagues in the history profession is particularly special,” she said.
“As a former President of the AHA, I saw the vital role the AHA played in advocacy – not only for the promotion of the discipline history, but for the advance of the humanities, the arts and culture more generally in Australia.”
Professor Damousi is now mentoring the next generation of Australian historians at ACU and is a passionate advocate for the discipline.
“I am committed to the promotion of history as a core discipline at ACU in teaching and research as it is fundamental to its mission and underpins all that we do,” she said.
“Every discipline and every practice, has a history and a past. To ensure the discipline flourishes, it is vital the next generation of historians are supported and promoted within ACU and beyond.
“History is crucial because understanding the past means comprehending the present and equipping ourselves for the future: we ignore it at our peril.”
