The Australian Academy of the Humanities

Dr John Byron (Executive Director)

John Byron has a PhD from the University of Sydney, and a first-class honours degree in English Language and Literature and a university medal from the University of Adelaide. His doctoral dissertation was on recent movies dealing with reality and identity, expressing mainstream anxieties about authenticity. As well as a lifelong scholarly interest in literature and film, John has a background in the physical sciences and mathematics that includes a period studying medicine before opting for the human sciences. He maintains a keen amateur interest in developments in science and technology, including their interactions with the humanities and the creative arts, such as in the e-Humanities and the burgeoning field of the medical humanities. He has worked in higher education and research policy in different capacities since 1997, including a stint in 2001 as national President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations. He has been Executive Director of the Australian Academy of the Humanities since August 2003, and is an Adjunct Research Fellow of the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University.

Dr Ian Maclean (Associate Director)

Ian Maclean has a PhD in nuclear physics from the Australian National University and a Graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting from the Canberra College of Advanced Education (now the University of Canberra). Ian has had a career of almost 30 years mostly in the Australian Public Service, including roles in providing science, technology and industry policy advice, and as a performance audit manager in the Australian National Audit Office. Ian’s career has oscillated between the Australian Public Service and academic positions, mostly at the University of Canberra, where he has lectured in a range of financial and management-related subjects, including at postgraduate level. Ian has personal interests in family history – his ancestors were convicts on the First Fleet – and in multiculturalism, refugees, most things Chinese, language education and community activity generally. Ian is President of the Association for Learning Mandarin in Australia, an organisation which operates a bilingual (English/Mandarin) child care centre in Canberra. He has previously been administrator of the East Asian Art Society and President of the ACT Council of Cultural Societies. Ian is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Academy’s secretariat, and assists the Director in policy development and with issues relating to the broader strategic direction of the Academy.

Christina Parolin (Policy Analyst)

Christina Parolin joins the Academy from the Humanities Research Centre (ANU) where she continues as a part-time student finalising her PhD in History. Her thesis, Radical Spaces, traces how those excluded from political power in early nineteenth century Britain - the working classes, artisans and the aspirational middling classes – began to find a voice in the venues of the emerging public sphere. While working towards her PhD, Christina has published articles and book chapters on the prison experiences of English radicals, and has tutored and provided guest lectures to undergraduate history students. Before undertaking her PhD, she was employed across various administrative and policy roles in the higher education sector including positions at the ANU, IDP Education Australia and as National Manager Education at the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA).

Phoebe Garrett (Project Officer)

Phoebe Garrett has a BA from the ANU, with majors in Ancient Greek and history and first-class honours in Latin. Her major research interest is character construction in ancient biography, and specifically in the Latin author Suetonius. Phoebe works full-time at the Academy.

Jorge Salavert (Project Officer)

Jorge Salavert was born in Valencia, Spain, where he completed a BA in English Philology. He has been a collaborator with the Shakespeare Institute at the Universitat de València. In Spain he also worked as an ESL teacher and as a court interpreter. After engaging in a famous-last-words conversation with an Australian backpacker on a Chilean bus on the way to the driest inhabited place on earth, the Atacama Desert, eventually he migrated here in 1996. He was Senior Spanish Translator at the Sydney Olympics, of which he actually saw little. He is an accredited translator both in Spain and Australia, and his research interests comprise Australian poetry and fiction, Jacobean drama, translation studies and the sampling of fine Asian cuisine. He is responsible for administering the awards and exchange programmes.

Christine Barnicoat (Fellowship Officer)

Christine Barnicoat Bsc (Hons) At the Academy, Christine is the Fellowship Officer, administering the election process and helping to organise the Symposium and AGM. She works part time, Monday to Friday, 9.30-2.30.

Gabriela Cabral (Administrative Officer)

Gabriela Cabral has a background in events management, music, theatre and arts administration. After working for years as a performer in theatre-in-education and as a facilitator in community cultural development, Gabriela decided to live dangerously and switched to the administration side of the performing arts. She worked for touring theatre companies in Sydney until being lured by the sedentary life of the International Theatre Institute and then, of the Sydney Opera House Trust. In 2001 Gabriela fled to Malaysia where she lived for five years totally oblivious to climate change and water restrictions. Back in Canberra and suffering reverse culture shock, she has been taken under the wing of the Academy where she will run the front office from 9am to 2:30pm.

Dr Janet Hadley Williams (Library and Archives Officer)

Janet Hadley Williams graduated with First Class Honours in English from ANU (B.A. 1975; Ph.D. 1979). She is currently Visiting Fellow, English, CASS, ANU; Member of Council, Scottish Text Society; and President of the Sir David Lyndsay Society. Her principal research interests are Scottish and English literature and culture, c. 1450–c.1600. Her case study of Lyndsay’s works for volume one of A History of the Book in Scotland (Edinburgh University Press) is forthcoming. She is currently preparing an edition for the Scottish Text Society, Comic and Parodic Poems in Older Scots.

Book publications include A Companion to Medieval Scottish Poetry, co-edited with Priscilla Bawcutt (Cambridge, 2006); Sir David Lyndsay: Selected Poems (Glasgow, 2000); and Stewart Style 1513–1542: Essays on the Court of James V (East Linton, 1996). Among her articles are ‘Catching the Echoes in “Duncan Laideus’ Testament” ’, Older Scots Literature, ed. S. Mapstone(Edinburgh, 2005); ‘Music and Sir David Lyndsay’, Notis Musycall: Essays on Music and Scottish Culture, ed. G. Munro et al. (Glasgow, 2005) and ‘ “To open a door upon the past of Scotland”: Helena Mennie Shire (1919–1991)’, Women Medievalists and the Academy, ed. J. Chance (Madison, 2005).