Top Australian Professor Arvanitakis to Teach at UW in 2019

One of the top professors in Australia will teach at the University of Wyoming next academic year, thanks to a new agreement between the Fulbright Program and the UW College of Arts and Sciences’ School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies (SPPAIS).

James Arvanitakis, internationally recognized for his innovative teaching style, will instruct four SPPAIS classes in 2019-2020 as UW’s first Fulbright Milward L. Simpson Visiting Professor. The position came about after SPPAIS Head Stephanie Anderson and the executive director of the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, Thomas Dougherty, signed a four-year agreement. Dougherty is a native of Casper and regularly visits campus and the state. Funding for the endeavor comes from SPPAIS’ Milward L. Simpson Fund and the Fulbright Program.

“We are honored to have such an internationally renowned scholar come to Laramie,” Anderson says. “Most importantly, he is extremely excited about meeting our students and giving talks around the state. I really want to thank Tom Dougherty and Fulbright for making this happen.”

Tentative courses for him to teach at UW include citizenship in a globalized world, the complexity of piracy, data politics and space and international relations.

Arvanitakis is the dean of the Graduate Research School at Western Sydney University (WSU), while also serving as a lecturer in humanities and as a member of the university’s Institute for Culture and Society. He was the recipient of the prime minister’s University Teacher of the Year Award in 2012 and an Eminent Research Award from the Australia India Education Council in 2015. He was the founding head of the academy at WSU that received an Australian Financial Review’s higher education excellence award in 2016 and the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue’s Excellence in Education Award in 2017.

Arvanitakis’ research areas include citizenship, resilience, piracy and the future of universities. He has written more than 100 articles and three books. He is a regular media commentator, appearing on ABC, and hosts the podcast “Sociologic.”

For more information about Arvanitakis, visit his website: www.jamesarvanitakis.net/.