The Australian Academy of the Humanities

The Crawford Medal - Obverse (left) and Reverse (right)

The most prestigious award for early career Humanities Researchers

In recognition of the outstanding achievements of scholars in the Humanities in Australia who are currently engaged in research and whose publications contribute towards an understanding of their disciplines by the general public, and in recognition of the services to the Academy by Emeritus Professor R M Crawford, the Crawford Medal is awarded every second year to a candidate assessed under specific guidelines.

You can see below a list of previous winners.

Picture: The Crawford Medal, obverse (left) and reverse (right).

Application details

This award is now closed for 2008. Nominations will open again in 2010.

Please read the Rules (.pdf, 108KB) before nominating, and contact the Academy by email or on 02 6125 9860.


2008: Associate Professor Kate Crawford (University of New South Wales) Associate Professor Kate 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 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. Adult Themes won the 2006 Manning Clark House Cultural Award, whose judges called it “a landmark contribution to Australian cultural life.”
2006: Dr Christopher Hilliard (History, University of Sydney) Dr Hilliard lectures in the history department at the University of Sydney, where he teaches courses on modern British history, twentieth-century Europe, and the relations between history and literary studies. He was noted in particular for his pioneering work on the 'history of the book'.	2004: Dr Kirsten McKenzie (History, University of Sydney) Dr McKenzie’s expertise lies in the area of colonial history, particularly in South Africa and Australia, with an emphasis on the roles of women. She was noted in particular for her recent book, Scandal in the Colonies: Sydney and Cape Town, 1820 – 1850 (Melbourne University Press: Melbourne, 2004).

2002: Dr Glenda Sluga (History, University of Sydney) Dr Sluga was awarded for her reputation as an innovative historian with interests that cross a number of national boundaries in European history, dealing with themes such as ethnicity and gender.	2000: Dr John Hajek (French and Italian Studies, University of Melbourne) Dr Hajek is a brilliant linguist who has made a major contribution to the study of language across a range of sub-fields within Linguistics, from phonetics to Australian English to Asia-Pacific languages to Italian dialects.

1997: Dr Tom Griffiths (History, RSSS, Australian National University) Dr Griffiths is the author of Hunters and Collectors: the Antiquarian Imagination in Australia (1996) and is one of Australia’s outstanding historians.	1996: Dr Lesley Stirling (Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, University of Melbourne) Dr Stirling was awarded for her contribution to linguistics in the areas of syntactic and semantic theory, discourse analysis and representation, language and gender, the philosophy of language, and cognitive science.
1995: Dr Nicholas Thomas (Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University) Dr Thomas was awarded for his pioneering contribution to the cross-disciplinary studies of exchange, colonial encounters, material culture and art as expressions of ethnicity.	1994: Dr Geremie Barmé (Pacific & Asian History, Australian National University) Dr Barmé was awarded for his contribution to the study of the intellectual and cultural history of China from the late Ming dynasty to the present time.
1993: Dr Hilary Fraser (English, University of Western Australia) Dr Fraser was awarded in recognition of her international standing as an authority on literature in Victorian England and on the history of ideas.	1992: Dr Janet McCalman (History, University of Melbourne) Dr McCalman was awarded for her contribution to the study of history in the areas of the history of religion, education, politics, class, medicine and women, and biography.