Congratulations to InASA Executive member, Professor David Walker, who is the inaugural BHP Billiton Chair of Australian Studies at Peking University. In this capacity, Professor Walker will increase the profile of studies of Australian society, history and culture in China. In addition, he will provide academic leadership to a network of more than 30 Australian Studies Centres in Chinese universities.
Professor Walker is the author of Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia, 1850-1939, (UQP: 1999), winner of the Ernest Scott prize for History in 2001 and Not Dark Yet: A Personal History (Giramondo: 2011). Not Dark Yet has now been reprinted and is being translated in into Chinese. Professor Walker recently released Australia’s Asia: From Yellow Peril to Asian Century, a collection of essays co-edited with Agnieszka Sobocinska (UWA Press: 2012). Currently Alfred Deakin Professor of Australian Studies at Deakin University and Visiting Professor in the School of Foreign Studies at Renmin University, Professor Walker has held previous appointments as the Distinguished Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at the University of Copenhagen, the Monash Chair of Australian Studies at Georgetown University (USA). He has extensive experience in the development of Australian Studies programmes in PRChina, India, Japan and Indonesia.
The President of Peking University, Professor Zhou Qifeng, welcomed
the appointment of Professor Walker to the new position. “Peking University warmly congratulates on the appointment of Professor David Walker and anticipates working with him in promoting Australian studies and strengthening cooperation with Australian universities for the mutual benefits of our two countries and peoples.”