Dr Meg Sherval (FIAG) Citation

A Fellowship of the Institute of Australian Geographers (FIAG) recognises sustained and significant contributions made to the discipline by IAG members in diverse fields. It acknowledges contributions to the discipline made by practitioner and professional geographers, as well as academic members of the Institute. Dr Meg Sherval has sustained and significantly developed geography and geographers at her university. She advocates for Geography at her university on numerous Program committees, and has been awarded both the Faculty of Science and the vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence and Student Engagement. She was placed on the Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s Academic Merit List for Teaching and Learning Excellence. This list recognises academic staff who, through exemplary teaching practices, have achieved outstanding student outcomes in one or more courses. Meg achieved this in all her courses that year. She has been awarded a prestigious St. Mary’s College Women’s Fellowship at Durham University (UK) and is the holder of an ARC grant. She was a Councillor of the Geographical Society of New South Wales for six years, and nationally on the Institute of Australian Geographers for six years. She was also Convenor of the Rural Geography Study Group for six years and has been co-Convenor of the Legal Geography Study group since 2021. Her duties have involved organising field trips, inviting international speakers, and conducting workshops for PhD students and early career researchers. She has contributed her expertise voluntarily to communities in NSW during the release of land use plans, and her work helped to result in the government’s imposition of exclusion zones around wine and horse breeding regions of the Hunter Valley. She also has worked with Indigenous peoples to help protect sacred sites. We would like to congratulate Dr Sherval on being awarded a Fellowship of the Institute of Australian Geographers.