Multiple accolades for Bell School academic Professor Evelyn Goh

Professor Evelyn Goh has been awarded three fellowships in a single year – a mark of exemplary merit and international acknowledgement of her scholarly contribution.

Fellowships in academic peak bodies are highly coveted. They signify unparalleled expertise. The selection criteria for fellowships are rigorous – the lifework of an academic is put under intense scrutiny and only those who are deemed to be worthy of excellence are recognised.

At the beginning of 2022, Professor Goh was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy. She was among a record number of women elected to an academy that identifies itself as “the United Kingdom’s authority for the humanities and social sciences”. Professor Goh joins a legion of 300 scholars who are deemed to have attained “high international standing” in these fields. There are only 20 Fellows elected in a year. Over time, many of the most distinguished scholars in the humanities and social sciences have been involved in the life of the Academy, including John Maynard Keynes, Isaiah Berlin, C.S. Lewis and Henry Moore.

Later in October, Professor Goh was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) for her contribution to the study of international affairs. The School’s namesake, Dr Coral Bell AO, was one of the first fellows of the Institute. The AIIA is one of the foremost think tanks in Australia. Professor Goh was among nine fellows recognised by AIIA for their valuable contribution towards cementing Australia’s place in the world.

In November, Professor Goh was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA), much like the British Academy, has a broad selection criterion, with some of the 2022 Fellows belonging to fields such as health sciences, law, geography, and economics, among others. Professor Goh and 33 other experts satisfied the Academy’s consideration and were recognised as “leading researchers and practitioners” across all social sciences.

These fellowships are a testament to Professor Goh’s dedication to the field of international security. She has published widely on U.S.-China relations and diplomatic history, regional security order in East Asia, Southeast Asian strategies towards great powers, and environmental security. She serves on the Editorial Boards of leading academic journals, including International Security, International Affairs, International Theory, International Studies Review, Asian Security, and the Journal of Global Security Studies.

In an interview with the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Professor Goh says she is “driven by rage – at how often and how much [the experts] get things wrong when [they] try to analyse and understand international relations and security in East Asia”. She identifies herself not just as an academic and expert in the field of international security but also as a humble student. Evident in her work is the endless drive to understand the scope of her expertise at a greater depth, where others would consider her sufficiently proficient already.

She is eager to lend her expertise to budding academics in Australia, the region and beyond. For instance, Professor Goh convenes the global Graduate Research Development Network on Asian Security (GRADNAS) from her institutional home at the ANU Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. From 2018 to 2021, she also convened two ANU Women in International Security (WIIS) seminar series that sought to normalise women’s roles as scholars and practitioners of international security.

As a panel member in the inaugural Bell School Research Festival, Professor Goh shared the benefits and challenges of conducting large-scale collaborative project with Early Career Researchers (ECRs). She spoke of her collaborative work on Strategic Diplomacy that endeavours to build cross-regional and thematic research for concepts and practices that will develop postgraduate education and executive training.

The fellowships, among the various other accolades already extended to Professor Evelyn Goh, cements her position as one of the most prominent global voices on Asian security issues. She continues to hold prestigious grants and works in close proximity with policy circles in Canberra and in the Asia-Pacific, and is among the many academics who have fortified the ANU Strategic and Defence Studies Centre’s reputation as the leading institution for the study of strategic and defence policy in Australia.

Congratulations for your outstanding achievements, Professor Evelyn Goh FBA FAIIA FASSA.