Overview of Committees
UOW Committees
Council Member Profiles
Associate Professor Diana Kelly
Chair of Senate from July 1st 2008
Qualifications BA (Macq) MCom (Hons) PhD
Diana Kelly has a long association with the University of Wollongong (UOW), beginning in 1969 as a history student (when UOW had 1300 students). She rejoined the university as a research assistant and casual tutor in the Department of Economics in 1983. For much of the time since she has worked at UOW in the Faculty of Commerce, the Graduate School of Business and, since 2006, in the School of History and Politics in the Faculty of Arts. In that time she has been delighted to be part of the transformation of UOW from a small institution to its current position as a respected university on the international higher education stage.
Associate Professor Kelly has played a significant role in many aspects of Faculty and University governance since the 1980s when a dearth of female academics and mandatory female representation gave junior women academics opportunities to take part in university governance, (and to appreciate short well-chaired meetings). During this time, her roles included that of member of Academic Senate and as President of the Kids' Uni Advisory Committee. Since then she has played an active role in many other committees, including the University Education Committee, various quality assurance and planning committees, the internationalisation committee, and the university occupational health and safety committee, including Chair 2001 to 2003. She was Deputy Chair of Academic Senate from 2002 – 2004 and was elected Chair of Academic Senate from 1 July 2008. Throughout the last 25 years, she has also played a major role in organising the Sir Richard Kirby Lecture, one of the University's premier public lectures, and indeed the longest running industrial relations lecture series in Australia.
Diana Kelly has researched and taught in employment / industrial relations since the 1980s. She is very proud of the numerous ER/IR graduates who have achieved senior and significant roles in their chosen careers - on all sides of the political fence. She has been a member of Academic Association of Industrial Relations of Australia and New Zealand, has organised the Association conference in Wollongong twice (1987 and 2001), has been Secretary and President of the association and was bestowed the rare honour of Honorary Life Member in 1998.
Her research has covered several important areas of social science, including policy, management and employment relations in the steel industry; the history and transmission of management and industrial relations thought; the media, trade unions and employment relations; workplace bullying; employment and training in recently developed countries; and quality assurance in international higher education. She has supervised Research Masters and PhD across a broad range of areas, which in recent years has included unionisation of call centres, employment and development challenges in Tonga; employee participation in Malaysia, the rise and fall of regional theatre in NSW and several aspects of international politics, particularly in Asia-Pacific regions. Her current thesis students are researching in diverse areas including a history of journalist, Rupert Lockwood, the role of the international media in politics, agreement-making in regional industry, and. a history of land economy in the Illawarra.
As the newly elected Chair of Senate, Diana Kelly hopes to enhance greater commitment to academic priorities across the University, to contribute to the University’s continuing excellence in research and teaching and to continue emphasising the importance of collegiality and academic ideals.