Diane Austin-Broos

Austin-Broos was born in Melbourne in 1946, and attended Hartwell State School and the Methodist Ladies' College in Kew. She won a scholarship to the Australian National University, where she studied philosophy and oriental studies. She also complete a master's degree in philosophy, followed by a short time in a research position for Professor Henry Mayer at the University of Sydney. In 1969 she won a scholarship to the University of Chicago and completed a doctorate in anthropology there in 1974. Austin-Broos returned to Australia the same year.[1]

Austin-Broos lectured in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Monash University in Melbourne for over five years; in 1980 moved to a position in anthropology at the University of Sydney. She became an associate professor in 1985 and a professor in 1995, a position she held until her retirement in 2008. She was then appointed professor emerita.[1]

While teaching at the University of Sydney, Austin-Broos introduced two major courses, on social change and the history of anthropological thought, to the anthropology curriculum. She also led a redesign of the first year course and supervised doctoral theses on a wide range of topics.[1]

Austin-Broos is an elected fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (1990)[3] and a past president of the Australian Anthropological Society and the Australian Caribbean Scholars Association. Her 2011 book A Different Inequality was a finalist in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Award for Literature (non-fiction).[2] She is a fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN).[4]