Distinguished Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO is the lead for research excellence, translation, and impact, and research training at the University of South Australia. As Standing Acting Vice Chancellor she is the lead for the Aboriginal Leadership and Strategy, Advancement, and Communications, Marketing and Domestic Student portfolios at the University of South Australia.
A graduate of the Universities of Tasmania and Oxford, Marnie has a global profile as a philosopher and as an historian. Her current work looks at how machines write histories, and the nature of AI as an historical discipline. Her writing has been translated into five languages, over 26,000 copies of her books have been sold, and her theories are taught across the world. She has led or been an investigator on a total of $18 million in grants. Her most recent books are History from Loss (edited with Daniel Woolf, 2023) and The Routledge Companion to History and the Moving Image (edited with Kim Nelson and Mia Treacey, 2023) and she is co-secretary general of the International Commission for the History and Theory of History.
Prior to taking up the role, she was Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic and Professor of History at the Australian National University (2012–19), where her duties ranged from admissions, academic standards and chairing the revenue committee for edX, through to academic school reviews and promotions. Her achievements included the development of a more diverse researcher workforce through systemic changes to promotion and recruitment; the $260 million Kambri campus redevelopment; and the $106 million Tuckwell gift. In addition to these contributions, she was the first woman to be National Secretary for the Rhodes Scholarships Australia and she currently serves on the Rhodes Trust UK-based Scholarships Committee, which looks after over 100 scholarships worldwide.
In 2022 she was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for her contribution to higher education governance, leadership, and mentoring, and in 2023 she was the recipient of a George Parkin Award by the Rhodes Trust for distinguished contribution to the Rhodes community worldwide.