Alaric Maude (Distinguished Fellowship) Citation

Conferred Cairns, September 2009

This award recognises the exceptional contribution Alaric Maude has made to Australian geography through his activities as a researcher, teacher, consultant, university administrator, office-holder in the Institute of Australian Geographers, and tireless advocate for geography as a discipline.

Alaric Maude retired from the School of Geography, Population and Management at Flinders University in 2004 after 37 years of service. As an economic geographer with a lifelong interest in development issues in the Asia-Pacific region, he was responsible for much of the School’s teaching in those areas, from first year to PhD level. He also made a major contribution to the emergence of Asian Studies as a distinctive area of teaching and research and a discipline in its own right at Flinders. His interests diversified later into issues of environmental sustainability and regional development in Australia and his research output, which continues today, comprises over 40 publications so far. His academic work has attracted a large number of postgraduate students from overseas, amongst whom he is highly respected as a sympathetic but meticulous thesis supervisor.

Alaric Maude served two terms as Head of Geography at Flinders and worked strenuously to ensure that the discipline survived and thrived during the challenging times of the 1980s and 1990s. Fittingly, he marked his retirement in 2004 by publishing the definitive history of Geography at Flinders University, as a paper in the special edition of South Australian Geographical Journal that marked the centenary of academic Geography in South Australia. He has also made a long-standing contribution to Geography as a secondary school subject in South Australia through his work on syllabus review and subject accreditation panels.

Alaric Maude’s service to the Institute of Australian Geographers began in 1967 when he became journal business manager for Australian Geographical Studies, a post he held until 1973. Then from 1989 to 2004 he was joint editor, with Deirdre Dragovich, of the Meridian Series of geography texts; a highly successful joint venture between the IAG and Oxford University Press (Australia). In 1997 the Institute recognised his contribution to the development of the Meridian Series by the award of a Professional Service Commendation. In 2004 he became Secretary of the Institute, a post in which he continues to serve the Australian geographical community with great vigour. As Secretary he has overseen the redesign of the Institute’s website and the refinement of online communication with all members. But more importantly he has played a key role on behalf of the Institute in lobbying the Federal government to secure Geography’s place in the National Curriculum – a project to which he remains strongly committed.

In addition to his continuing work as Secretary of the Institute, Alaric Maude has been editor of the South Australian Geographical Journal since 2005 and continues to make a valuable contribution to geographical teaching and research at Flinders University as an Adjunct Staff Member.

This Distinguished Fellowship is richly deserved as recognition of Alaric Maude’s service to Australian geography. But, as his current level of activity amply demonstrates, it certainly does not signify the end of that contribution.

Clive Forster and Dean Forbes

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