Digital Child Director Professor Susan Danby named as Fellow of ASSA

Internationally recognised Professor Susan Danby, Director of ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, has been named amongst a select group of Australia’s leading economists, lawyers, psychologists, philosophers and other social scientists as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA).

Aside from her work on the pioneering Digital Child project, Professor Danby is best known for her work in early childhood which has been her field of research for nearly 30 years at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). 

She is considered to be one of Australia’s leading experts in early years language and social interaction, childhood studies, and young children’s engagement with digital technologies. 

As Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, Professor Danby leads a collective of national and international researchers and partners across government, business and the community to work towards the Centre’s vision – ensuring young children are healthy, connected and educated in a rapidly changing digital age.

Her research career has been driven by this same vision and cross-disciplinary approach and explores the everyday social and interactional practices of children, investigating their complex and competent work as they build their social worlds. 

Professor Danby was an ARC Future Fellow (2012-2017) and has led three ARC Discovery Projects. She was a member of the ARC College of Experts (2016-2017) and the Early Childhood Australia Digital Policy Group. In 2019, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Uppsala University (Sweden) for her international contribution to child studies, and studies of children and digital technologies.

The selection of Fellows is undertaken by Australia’s learned academies (of which there are five) who select the ‘best and brightest minds’ from universities and research institutes across the country. 

For 50 years, research and advice from Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia has shaped government policies, been called on by Australia’s leaders, and played a key role in shaping the nation. The most recent announcement brings the number of Fellows in the Academy to 742.

President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Professor Jane Hall congratulated the new Fellows on their election.

“These new Fellows are at the forefront of social research and policy, and they have made enormous contributions to our society as a whole,” she said. “It is an honour to have these individuals as new Fellows of the Academy.”

To review full profiles of each of the new members please see here. 

An online event featuring brief presentations from each of the new Fellows will be held on 24 November, 4:30-7:00 pm AEDT. This event is open to the public via the Academy’s website: https://socialsciences.org.au/events/2021-new-fellows-presentations/.