Bell, Diane (1943 - )

Summary

Diane Bell trained as aprimary school teacher but, at the age of 28, decided to study anthropology at Monash University. During her early career as an anthropologist she spent considerable time in the Northern Territory and established her own consulting practice. Much of her work has involved close liaison with Australia's First Nations people, especially on issues related to land rights, law reform, and the roles and rights of women. In 1986 she became Professor of Australian Studies at Deakin University, the first female professor at the University. She has held other senior positions in higher education institutions in both Australia and the United States. After 17 years in the U.S. she returned to Australia in 2005 and for the next eight years lived on Ng country. Bell published a number of books in which she showed thatAboriginal women are owners and managers of land in their own right. Daughters of the Dreaming, (1983) focused on the religious, spiritual and ceremonial lives of Aboriginal women in central Australia. The award-winning NgarrindjeriWurruwarrin: a world that is, was, and will be (1998) examined the issues surrounding the controversial proposal to construct a bridge from Gawler to Hindmarsh Island, South Australia, and the ultimate vindication of the local Aboriginal women.

Details

Chronology

1961

Education - Primary Teachers' Certificate at Frankston Teachers' College, Victoria

1962 - 1967

Career position - Primary school teacher in Victoria and New South Wales

1972 - 1975

Career position - Commonwealth Scholarship, Monash University

December 1974 - March 1975

Career position - Vacation Scholar in Anthropology, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University

1975

Education - BA(Hons) in Anthropology, Monash University

1976

Career position - Tutor in Anthropology (part-time), Australian National University

1976 - 1980

Career position - Postgraduate scholarship, Australian National University

1978

Career position - Tutor in Anthropology (part-time), Australian National University

1979 - 1988

Career position - Member, Editorial Board, Aboriginal history

1981

Career position - Senior Anthropologist, Aboriginal Sacred Sites Protection Authority, Northern Territory

1981

Education - PhD in Social Anthropology, Australian National University

1982

Award - Charles Strong (Australian Church) Memorial Trust Fellow

1982

Career position - Visiting Fellow, Department of Prehistory and Anthropology, Australian National University

1982 - 1988

Career position - Private practice as a Consulting Anthropologist at Diane Bell and Associates

1983

Career position - Research Fellow in Gender, Ideology and Politics in the South Pacific Workshop in Anthropology at the Research School of Pacific Studies at Australian National University

1984 - 1986

Career position - Research Fellow on the Social Justice Project, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

April 1985 - May 1985

Career position - Visiting Professor in the Women and Social Change Project at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

1986

Career event - Won competitive tender (with McPhee Gribble) from Australian Bicentennial Authority to write a book about women in Australia: Generations: grandmothers, mothers and daughters (1987)

1986 - 1988

Career position - Professor of Australian Studies and Founding Director of the Centre for Australian Studies, Deakin University

1987

Award - Zonta High Achiever Award, Zonta Club, Geelong

1988

Award - John Curtin Memorial Lecturer, Australian National University

1989 - 1998

Career position - Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Economic Development and Social Justice, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

1990 - 1991

Career position - Overseas Media Commentator (bi-weekly broadcasts) for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

1990 - 1993

Career position - Founding Director of Women's Studies, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

1990 - 2005

Career position - Professor of Anthropology and Director of Women's Studies, George Washington University, Washington D.C., U.S.A.

1992

Award - Peter Craigie Memorial Lecturer, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

1993 - 1994

Career position - Sabbatical leave, Five College Women's Studies Research Center, Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, and Anthropology Department at Stanford University, California, U.S.A.

1996 -

Career position - Honorary Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide

1999

Award - Finalist: Queensland Premier's History Award for Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: a world that is, was, and will be (1998)

1999

Award - New South Wales Premier's Gleebook Award for cultural and literary criticism for Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: a world that is, was, and will be (1998)

1999

Award - Finalist: Age Book of the Year for Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: a world that is, was, and will be (1998)

1999 - 2005

Career position - Member, Editorial Board, Women's studies international forum

2000

Award - Finalist: Gold Medal for the Australian Literary Society for Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: a world that is, was, and will be (1998)

2000

Award - Senior Scholar Special Commendation of Honor, American Association of University Women (AAUW)

2002

Award - Inducted into the Golden Key Honor Society, November 28, as an Honorary Member for "commitment to higher education and an outstanding job in capacity as Director of Women's Studies"

2005 -

Career position - Professor Emerita of Anthropology, GeorgeWashington University, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

2021

Award - Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to literature

2023

Award - Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, Writers Victoria Inc.

Related entries

Archival resources

Deakin University Archives

• Diane Bell Collection, 1987; Deakin University Archives. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Biographical Cuttings on Diane Bell, author of Australian Studies at Deakin University, Cuttings Files BIOG; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Articles

• 'Diane Bell, Australian Studies: Fifteen years from school to professor', WISENET Journal, 7 (September) (1986). https://web.archive.org/web/20130509002629/http://www.wisenet-australia.org/profiles/dianbell.htm. Details

Books

• Bell, Diane, Daughters of the dreaming (Melbourne: Sydney: McPhee Gribble: George Allen & Unwin, 1983), 297 pp. Details
• Bell, Diane, Generations : grandmothers, mothers and daughters (Fitzroy, Vic.: McPhee Gribble/Penguin, 1987), 280 pp. Details
• Bell, Diane, 1988: still in search of the just society (Canberra: Australian National University, 1989), 50 pp. Details
• Bell, Diane, Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: a world that is, was, and will be (North Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 1998), 688 pp. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5271401. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/218155901. Details
• 'Bell, Diane (1943-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-615599. Details