UTS FASS academic named in top 5 humanities researchers

Heidi Norman, a Professor in Social and Political Sciences in the UTS School of Communication, has been named as one of Australia’s top 5 humanities researchers by the ABC.

The Top 5 researchers initiative is an ABC residency program in partnership with the University of Sydney, which aims to support Australia's next generations of dynamic thinkers and give voice to their research. The Top 5 program equips emerging scholars with media and communication skills so that they can share their specialist knowledge more widely, through expert commentary, analysis and media programs.

This is the first year that humanities has been included in the Top 5 program, as it has previously been exclusively for science researchers.

Heidi’s research focus is Aboriginal history, with a particular focus on land and the Aboriginal administrative domain. Her most recent area of research is focused on Aboriginal people’s interests in pursuing land management and cultural aspirations on their land, alongside imperatives to pursue economic development.

The thing I love most about being a researcher is the possibility of creating new relationships, of learning new things and contributing ideas that hopefully enable us and future generation, to live well.

Professor Heidi Norman

Heidi will spend two weeks in September working alongside some of Australia’s best journalists and broadcasters, to train in the craft of radio and TV interviews and develop content across the ABC’s platforms.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Professor Mary Spongberg, has congratulated Heidi on the achievement, saying "Heidi is going from strength to strength in her research career; this achievement follows her incredible ARC Discovery Indigenous award. I am proud of the research Heidi is doing in the Aboriginal history space as the work has an impact on the whole of Australia."

Find out more about the winners of the ABC’s Top 5 residency program.