Academy of Social Sciences in Australia

Year elected: 2003
Panel: A
Discipline: Anthropology

Professor Jon Altman is Professor of Anthropology and an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), Research School of Social Sciences, the Australian National University. From 1990-2010 he was the inaugural director of CAEPR. Professor Altman specialises in combining the disciplines of anthropology and economics in the analysis of development issues and state policies for Indigenous Australians.

His current research is focused on the role of the customary sector in Indigenous 'hybrid' economies - research being undertaken in collaboration with biological and ecological scientists.

Other area of expertise include:

• the anthropology of development
• Indigenous public policy
• the Indigenous arts industry
• mining and Indigenous Australians
• land rights and native title
• Indigenous socioeconomic status and its measurement.

• Chair, Review of the Aboriginals Benefit Trust Account
• Chair, Review of the Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Industry
• Member, review of Native Title Representative Bodies
• Member UNESCO Kakadu mission
• Independent expert, Kakadu Region Social Impact Study.

• Altman, J.C. and Hinkson, M. (eds) 2007. Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia, Arena Publications Association, Melbourne
• Altman, J.C. and Martin, D. (eds) 2009. Power, Culture, Economy: Indigenous Australians and Mining, CAEPR Research Monograph No. 30, ANU E Press, Canberra.
• Altman, J.C. and Hinkson, M. (eds) 2010. Culture Crisis: Anthropology and Politics in Aboriginal Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney.

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