Launch: Broken by Graeme Turner (Avid Reader, Brisbane)

ABOUT THE BOOK

In Broken, Graeme Turner provides a reality check for those who imagine the academic life is one of privilege and leisure, laying bare the enormous challenges and lack of hope experienced by many in academia. He unearths the foundations of this crisis, then explains how the solution lies in an overhaul of the one-size-fits-all approach to university funding, the establishment of genuine full-time career paths, and the formation of an independent body to ensure our university system serves the national interest in both teaching and research, rather than the ferocious competitiveness of the marketplace.

Above all, we need to jettison the current economic focus on education, and re-embrace the idea that higher learning is a fundamental public good—and should be funded as such.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Graeme Turner AO is Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland. He has published thirty books and his work has been translated into eleven languages. He has served as president of the Academy of the Humanities, is a former Federation Fellow, and is the only humanities scholar to have served two successive terms as a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. He has had extensive engagement with higher education policy, research assessment and commentary on the sector, including prominent roles with the Australian Research Council, the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, and the Learned Academies. He co-authored the landmark 2014 study of the state of the humanities, creative arts and social sciences disciplines in Australia, Mapping HASS. His AO was awarded in 2019 in recognition of his pioneering work in cultural studies and his contribution to higher education. Graeme has published over thirty books, his most recent book is The Shrinking Nation (2023).