Associate Professor Natalie Edwards has served for almost five years as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Faculty of Arts at the University of Adelaide and has been instrumental in both shaping HDR initiatives at the University level and driving their implementation within her own Faculty.

As Director, she has focused on designing, implementing and evaluating measures to improve the postgraduate student experience. Bringing students together for formal and informal events, heavily investing in the recruiting, training and leading her team of Postgraduate Coordinators and specifically targeting and strengthening diversity are strategies that Natalie has used to build a strong intellectual community for students.

She is also very attuned to the need for postgraduate students in the Arts to be exceptionally well trained and prepared for careers within and beyond academia. To this end, she has implemented several initiatives to encourage her students to develop into highly skilled, independent researchers who are able to adapt their knowledge and training to a variety of professional avenues. These include promoting industry engagement in the Humanities and piloting a teaching program for her graduate researchers.

Firmly believing that effective graduate research supervision requires clear pedagogical strategies based upon reflection, rigour and accountability, she has helped her colleagues
develop a toolkit of strategies that can be adapted to different students and different projects, both through individual mentoring and the development of Supervision Series within her faculty.

Most importantly, students and colleagues alike agree that beyond these achievements
“A/Professor Edwards’ particular blend of passion, integrity, humour and empathy endears her to students and colleagues alike, she is the kind of leader who people naturally want to follow”.

Special Commendation was awarded to Associate Professor Inger Mewburn, The Australian National University