Monash University experts appointed Sir John Monash Distinguished Professors
Monash has appointed Laureate Professor Marilyn Fleer and Professor Lynette Russell AM, as Sir John Monash Distinguished Professors, the most prestigious title that can be conferred on serving professors of the University.
“The Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor title is awarded only to professors of exceptional distinction who have made high-level and sustained contributions to their discipline, the University and the community,” Monash President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Gardner AC said.
Professor Marilyn Fleer is the Foundation Chair in Early Childhood Education and Development in the Faculty of Education and founder of the Conceptual PlayLab programmatic study. A champion of teaching and learning in the area of early childhood education, Professor Fleer has been instrumental in leading the successful development of the Faculty’s early childhood teaching program.
An accomplished mentor, Professor Fleer has guided a generation of early childhood academics with her mentees performing senior teaching and research positions in Australia and internationally. In 2018, Professor Fleer was awarded the prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship, designed to mentor early career women researchers, and was notably the ARC’s first Laureate Professor in early childhood education.
Professor Fleer has led numerous key research projects, with her work attracting more than $10 million in grants. She has published widely in international journals and founded the International Journal of Research in Early Childhood, an open access journal designed to support scholarship in early education research. Her work has also informed policy and practice in Australia and abroad.
In recognition of her distinguished contributions to early childhood education, Professor Fleer was appointed a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2021. In 2022, she was selected for the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in recognition of her celebrated work in shifting understanding of how young children think and learn.
Professor Lynette Russell AM is an internationally-recognised Indigenous histories expert, one of Australia’s foremost historians, and a renowned leader within the Monash academic community. With a research focus on developing an anthropological approach to the story of the past, Professor Russell is currently leading Global Encounters Monash, an ARC Laureate Fellowship project which explores encounters between Australia’s Indigenous peoples and voyagers from the sea over the period of a millennium.
In 2019, Professor Russell was awarded the ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding contribution to humanities, arts and social sciences. She holds a deep sense of responsibility for mentoring younger colleagues and students in the Faculty of Arts and has supervised more than 40 PhD students to completion. Further, she has a steadfast commitment to the development of the University’s next generation of Indigenous scholars.
The impact of Professor Russell’s research is significant, both nationally and internationally, at government and policy level, and she has secured more than $6 million in research income through nationally competitive grant and industry funding schemes.
A professor of exceptional distinction, Professor Russell was recognised for her service to higher education, particularly Indigenous history, and to professional organisations, with conferral as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019. She was a Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford (2014 to 2015), and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, United Kingdom (2004) and, most recently, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023).
Professor Fleer and Professor Russell AM join fellow current Sir John Monash Distinguished Professors, including Professor Bill Charman AO, Professor Jamie Cooper AO, Professor Kim Cornish, Professor Doug MacFarlane, Professor John McNeil AO, Professor Christina Mitchell AO and Professor Aibing Yu.