The Australian Academy of the Humanities
Highest humanities honour goes to UNSW media researcher Text of Media Release
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Contact: Australian Academy of the Humanities
Associate Professor Kate Crawford has been awarded Australia’s most prestigious award for achievement and promise in the humanities.
The Max Crawford Medal is presented biennially by the Australian Academy of the Humanities to an Australian-based, early-career humanities scholar, who has contributed to the enrichment of the cultural life of Australia. The award recognises high quality academic research that contributes to a deeper understanding of an aspect of the humanities in a general audience.
Kate Crawford (no relation, we think) was awarded the medal for her body of work, including the widely praised Adult Themes (Pan Macmillan, 2006) which examines what it means to be an adult in contemporary society, overturning the easy generalisations about generations and their attributes that circulate in the media and the wider culture. Adult Themes won the 2006 Manning Clark House Cultural Award, whose judges called it "a landmark contribution to Australian cultural life."
"Kate Crawford’s work is academically rigorous while being accessible to a lay audience," said the Academy’s Awards Committee. "The combination of thorough research, clear thinking and engaging writing is the key to Crawford’s success in crossing over from the scholarly sphere to the general audience."
Crawford works at the Journalism and Media Research Centre in the University of New South Wales. Her research focuses on social change and digital cultures, particularly mobile media. She is an electronic musician and composer, and co-founder of independent record label Deluxe Mood Recordings. She has performed in groups such as B(if)tek, Clone and Terry Nation, and has worked as a journalist in Australia and the USA.
The Medal celebrates the outstanding career of the late Professor Raymond Maxwell Crawford, Foundation Fellow of the Academy and eminent historian, who greatly influenced the teaching of history in Australian universities and schools. The award is funded through the proceeds of a bequest to the Academy by Professor Crawford.
