01 Dec Professor Bell awarded Lifetime Achievement Award
Congratulations to Professor Sharon Bell AM who was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at our annual Conference last week for outstanding vision, commitment and achievement in advancing University Engagement with Society!
Professor Sharon Bell is an academic leader with over twenty-five years of leadership experience in the Australian higher education sector. She is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Culture, History and Language (2021- ) She was Interim Dean ANU College of Asia & the Pacific (2019-2021). She is also an Emeritus Professor at the University of Wollongong (2003-) and an Emeritus professor at the University of Western Sydney (2020- ). Professor Bell’s significant contribution to tertiary education and advocacy for gender equity was formally recognised when she was admitted as a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in January 2019.
Professor’s Bell’s research and creative work has focused on two discrete strands under one theme: the position of women. Her post-graduate research in Sri Lanka was on the impact and status of the incorporation of women into the wage labour force. More recently she has turned her ethnographic gaze to the position of women in the academy, in particular to women in science.
Her numerous leadership roles have enabled her to utilise her diplomatic skills and knowledge of the importance of cultural protocols to extend her networks in Indonesia, China and India. She has worked successfully with DFAT officials and Heads of State in Sri Lanka and Timor Leste. In collaboration with His Excellency Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão she facilitated capacity building in Timor Leste and Eastern Indonesia through the initiation of the Tri Lateral University Roundtable: Timor-Leste, East Indonesia and Northern Australia. The aim of the Roundtable is for regional universities to play an active role to ensure that ‘…no country, no community, no island is left behind’. (Gusmão, May 2014)
Engagement Australia was honoured to present EA’s Lifetime Achievement Award to Professor Bell at their annual conference for her remarkable achievements that have shaped the twin pillars of equity and engagement within our cherished sector.