Professor James Arvanitakis has just accepted a 12-month Fulbright Fellowship as the Milward L. Simpson Visiting Professor – University of Wyoming.

His substantial position remains as the Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Graduate Studies) at Western Sydney University. He is also a lecturer in Humanities and a member of the University’s Institute for Culture and Society. James was also the founding Head of The Academy at Western Sydney University that received an Australian Financial Review higher education excellence award (2016) and the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue Excellence in Education Award (2017).

James is internationally recognised for his innovative teaching style and was the recipient of the Prime Minister’s University Teacher of the Year Award in 2012 and an Eminent Researcher Award from the Australia India Education Council in 2015. In 2017 he was appointed a Research Fellow of the Australian India Institute and sits on the Australian Indian Education Working Party.

A former economist and free market advocate, James changed his position after witnessing child and indentured labour. After 9 years of working in finance, he has since worked with a cross-section of organisations across Australia, Asia, Pacific and Europe including Oxfam Hong Kong, Aid/Watch and Friends of the Earth (France).

His research areas include citizenship, resilience, piracy and the future of universities. James has authored over 100 articles in 2016 released three books: Sociologic (a first-year sociology textbook with Oxford University Press), Citizen Scholar and the future of universities (Palgrave), and From Despair to Hope (Penguin).

James is a regular media commentator appearing on ABCNews24. He tweets at @jarvanitakis.