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Two Monash fellows for social sciences academy

11 October 2006

Professor Jane Kenway.
Professor Ken Pearson.

Monash academics Professor Jane Kenway and Professor Ken Pearson have been elected fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

They were two of the 24 fellows elected to the academy in 2006. Fellows of the academy are elected by their peers on the basis of having achieved a very high level of scholarly distinction and for having made a distinguished contribution to one or more disciplines of the social sciences.

Professor Pearson is one of only a handful of Australian academics who have made a significant difference to world economics. The Gempack software suite he designed and built is the main research tool for thousands of economists. Through Gempack, applied (or computable) general equilibrium (CGE) modelling has become the standard technique for analysing policy problems in taxation, trade, the environment and microeconomic regulation.

About 500 modelling institutions -- including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation and many universities -- use Gempack for quantitative economic analysis.

Professor Kenway's research focuses on the links between socio-cultural change and educational change. Her most popular book, Consuming Children, shows how the distinctions between education, entertainment and advertising are collapsing in the life of the child.

Her most recent book, Haunting the Knowledge Economy, identifies the repressed economies that haunt knowledge economy policies. It offers enriched ways of thinking about economies today and takes us far beyond narrow notions of knowledge as a commodity.

Professor Kenway is widely recognised as one of the most provocative thinkers in education. Never subscribing to intellectual or institutional orthodoxies, she constantly challenges the status quo. She offers fresh interpretations of enduring educational issues and also anticipates educational trends long before others.