The School of Communication and Arts is saddened by the passing of Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner on 25 November 2025 after a short illness. Professor Turner was Emeritus Professor at the School of Communication and Arts, a former Head of School and the founding Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies. Beyond his service for UQ, he was a key figure in establishing media and cultural studies in Australia, a former ARC Federation Fellow and a past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He led on the Australian Research Council's Cultural Research Network and was the only Australian to serve on the winners' selection committee of the Holberg Prize, considered to be one of the world’s most prestigious social sciences awards. He was a scholar of great distinction with a catalogue of over 30 books, published with international publishers and widely translated, with his most recent work being Broken: Universities, Politics and the Public Good (published by Monash UP), a bestselling and groundbreaking book on the precarity of the Australian higher education sector that was launched just in July this year.
Professor Turner was truly one of Australia’s most distinguished humanities scholars, driving the profile of humanities in this country, training a generation of scholars and cementing Australia’s global standing in the field. As Pro Vice Chancellor for Campus Culture and Leadership and Executive Dean of UQ’s Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Professor Heather Zwicker puts it: "Graeme Turner is the intellectual we probably all aspired to become when we first began our PhDs: rigorous in his scholarship, capacious in his intellectual appetites, talented in the classroom, both challenging and compassionate as a mentor, plainspoken and fearless." The many tributes which have flowed since the news broke of his passing point to not only his influence in the Australian cultural and academic landscape (an article in the Times Higher Education memorialised Turner as no less than a "titan of the humanities"), but also someone who is simply a wonderful, vital, courageous and generous individual.
The School of Communication and Arts extends our sincere condolences to Professor Turner's family and to all who knew him. He will be deeply missed.
