Honorary doctorate to Louise Adler
Louise Adler AM (centre) with Deputy Chancellor Mr Shane Buggle and the President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Margaret Gardner.
Melbourne publisher Louise Adler AM has been recognised with an honorary doctorate from Monash University.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa was conferred on Dr Adler at a ceremony at the University’s Clayton campus yesterday.
One of the most significant figures in contemporary Australian publishing, Dr Adler was recognised for her services to Australian publishing, through to her support and promotion of emerging authors, education and the community.
Dr Adler is CEO and Publisher-in-Chief of Melbourne University Publishing. In 2013, Dr Adler retired after 14 years of service as Council member and in recent years as Deputy Chancellor of Monash University.
She also served on the board of the Monash University Museum of Art, the Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
Monash University Deputy Chancellor Shane Buggle congratulated Dr Adler on her achievements.
“Through the course of her career, Dr Adler has become one of the most significant figures in contemporary Australian culture and has developed a reputation as an effective change agent,” Mr Buggle said.
“During her time at Monash, her commitment to both Arts and the Academy has contributed to what are now award-winning facilities in the art, design and architecture precinct at the University.”
Dr Louise Adler AM is the President of the Australian Publishers Association, Chair of the Methodist Ladies College Board and Chair of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for fiction and poetry. From 2010 to 2013, Ms Adler was Deputy Chair of the government commissioned Book Industry Strategy Group and the Book Industry Collaborative Council.
After an academic career that included teaching roles in the English and Comparative Literature department at Columbia University and the University of Melbourne, she became the editor of Australian Book Review in 1988. From 1989 until 1994, Dr Adler was Publishing Director of Reed Books Australia. In 1994 she became the Arts and Entertainment Editor for The Age newspaper. In 1996 she joined the ABC’s Radio National as the presenter of Arts Today. In 1999 Dr Adler was appointed the inaugural Deputy Director (Academic and Research) at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Dr Adler also served as a director of the Board of the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts for nine years and the Board of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art for over a decade.
Dr Adler has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, and a Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy from Columbia University in New York City.
Dr Adler was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2008 for service to literature as a publisher, through support for and the promotion of emerging authors, to tertiary education, and to the community.