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Honour for humanities scholars

7 December 2005

Three Monash University scholars have been elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Professor Constant Mews, Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, and Dr Kate Rigby and Professor Andrew Benjamin from the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, were among 17 scholars to be elected Fellows last month.

Fellows elected to the academy, which is based in Canberra, are considered to have achieved the highest distinction in scholarship in the humanities in Australia.

Professor Mews is an eminent medievalist who has earned acclaim in a wide range of fields, from the history of 12th-century logic to the famous relationship between Abelard and Heloise and Germanic monastic culture.

He said it was an honour to be invited to join such an illustrious academy. "It is vital to fight for the cause of the humanities in our society."

Dr Rigby, Director of the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, also said she was honoured to be admitted to the Academy of the Humanities.

"I see it as an acknowledgement of the high regard in which my contribution to research in my field is held, both nationally and internationally," she said.

Dr Rigby said membership of the academy would mean further opportunities for collaboration with other scholars in the humanities, across a wide variety of fields.

"This is especially valuable for me, as my own work is highly interdisciplinary, bridging German studies, comparative literature and religious studies, and particularly in the emerging field of the ecological humanities," she said.

Dr Rigby has co-authored a volume of essays with Professor Mews, although neither knew that the other was being nominated to the academy.

Professor Benjamin is an adjunct professor at the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies but holds a full-time appointment at the University of Technology in Sydney.

The Australian Academy of the Humanities is a not-for-profit organisation incorporated by Royal Charter. Formed in 1969, its primary goal is to promote the interests of the humanities in Australia.