Chancellor’s honours for passionate advocate of the Classics

Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Minchin has been awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service to the University.

The well-respected Professor of Classics with the ANU School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, and Curator of the ANU Classics Museum, has been part of the ANU community for the last four decades. She completed her second undergraduate degree here, along with a Masters degree, and then a PhD. She has held teaching and research positions at ANU since 1990.

Emeritus Professor Minchin was presented with the Chancellor’s award at the morning graduation ceremony for the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. She said she felt honoured to receive the award.

“I feel that I owe the ANU a great deal: I had excellent training in my undergraduate courses; I had superb supervision for my postgraduate degrees; and I have formed lasting friendships on campus,” says Emeritus Professor Minchin. 

“[As a result] I am more than happy to give back, in whatever ways I can, to the institution that has supported me for so long.”

Full citation:

The Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to the University is awarded for distinguished service of a high degree. 

Bringing the classics to life at the University has been a lifelong passion for Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Minchin. A well-respected mentor and leading figure among the Canberra community, Professor Minchin has also been a significant figure within the ANU community since receiving her undergraduate degree in 1978.

Professor Minchin became a prominent authority in the application of cognitive theory to Homeric studies via her first book – Homer and the Resources of Memory: Some Applications of Cognitive Theory to the Iliad and The Odyssey. This continues to be a respected publication in the field.

Her interest in the relationship between the literature of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds and later periods and societies, including contemporary Australia, led her research to include reception studies and, in particular, the longer history of the Gallipoli Peninsula and the Dardanelles.

Professor Minchin previously received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and a Carrick Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.  She played a major role in ensuring that the teaching of Classics continued and flourished at the University as well as the establishment of the ANU Centre for Classical Studies.

As Curator of the ANU Classics Museum, Professor Minchin actively promotes the museum as a community and teaching resource while introducing new technologies to the museum, mentoring volunteer museum guides and advising the Friends of the Classics Museum.