Diversity Week
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney, BEd, MEd, PhD (Flinders), MACE
'Professor Rigney (Photo courtesy Ashton Claridge)
Short Biography
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney is Director of the Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research, Flinders University. He is a Professor of Education and is one of the most influential Indigenous educationalists in Australia today. His leadership in education is evident through his election by his academic peers since 2002, to the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Research Advisory Committee as expert on education and cultural transmission. His professional standing in education saw him inducted into the Australian College of Educators (ACE) in 1998. He is recognised as a national and international authority in the area of Indigenist Research Methodologies. Interest in his work by National and International universities has seen him uptake several prestigious Visiting Research Fellowships including Cambridge University, UK; Fort Hare University, South Africa; and University of British Columbia, Canada. He has also been chief/co- investigator, led research teams for reports and policies for key benchmarking research/government agencies including: United Nations; DEST; ATSIC; NCVER; AIATSIS; The office of the SA Premier and Cabinet; SA Department of Education and Children's Services. Similarly, Professor Rigney is an active editorial board member of, three national Indigenous Studies journals He is the Regional Editor for Australia to the International Journal of Post-Colonial Studies titled 'Interventions', from Nottingham Trent University and Cambridge University, UK. Rigney is in constant demand as a commentator on national and international Indigenous matters and has published widely on Education, Languages and Knowledge transmission. His recent 2006 co-edited book titled Sharing Spaces: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Responses to Story, Country and Rights, is the most up to date Australian text on Indigenous and non-Indigenous race relations and how this converges in the vulnerable, vital and contested space called 'education'. Dr Rigney is an Adjunct Professor at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies Australian National University.