Professor Felicity Cox, from the Department of Linguistics in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, and Associate Professor Greta Hawes, from the Department of History and Archaeology in the Faculty of Arts, were elected as Fellows of the Academy this week.
Election to the Australian Academy of the Humanities is the highest honour within humanities in the country. Fellows are leaders in their field, committed to understanding the past, explaining the world we live in, and imagining and shaping the future.
Academy awards: Professor Felicity Cox, left, and Associate Professor Greta Hawes have been recognised for their contribution to the humanities.
Professor Cox was recognised for her influential work across linguistics, speech science, culture and identity, which has transformed the way Australian English speech patterns are represented and understood.
Professor Cath McMahon, Head of the Department of Linguistics, said the recognition was just reward for Professor Cox’s commitment and expertise.
“Felicity is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the Australian English accent and her research in multicultural Australian English highlights and celebrates the diversity of Australian voices. Her election to the Academy is a true reflection of the strength of her leadership in linguistics.”
Professor Cox has published widely on phonetic/phonological variation and sound change and is the author of important textbooks for students of linguistics and speech science.
She is the President of the Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association and has received several national competitive project grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC), including a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship.
Associate Professor Hawes was elected for her contribution to classical studies. Also an ARC Future Fellow, Associate Professor Hawes specialises in ancient Greek myth and its reception in both the ancient and modern worlds.
Professor Malcolm Choat, Head of the Department of History and Archaeology, said:
“This achievement is a testament to Greta's standing as a pre-eminent scholar of Greek myth nationally and internationally and well-deserved recognition of the important contribution to the humanities her research and academic citizenship have made.”
Associate Professor Hawes is the author of Pausanias in the World of Greek Myth (2021), and edited the 2017 collection, Myths on the Map: The Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece. She is co-director of the Linked Open Data project MANTO and has served as commissioning editor for Classical Review since 2021.
Of her election, Associate Professor Hawes said: “I was so delighted to get this news. It’s wonderful to think this work is being recognised and I can only reflect on the support I’ve received over the years from friends and colleagues in the field.”
