Richard Baker

Richard was born and bred in Canberra. In 1981 he was awarded the ANU University Medal for his combined Honours degree in Archaeology and Physical Geography. He then worked as an archaeologist and oral historian for the NT Museum before completing a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Adelaide. From 1990 to 1993 he was the inaugural head of the People and the Environment section of the National Museum of Australia. He has taught Geography at ANU since 1994. He was awarded the ANU’s Vice-Chancellors award for teaching excellence in 1996 and 2002. He was the inaugural chair of the ANU Teaching Forum a group of award winning ANU teachers dedicated to promoting excellence in teaching and learning at ANU. His first year course “Society, Environment and Resources” won the 2003 National Teaching Prize.

His research focuses on community participation in resource management and environmental policy. He has worked on these issues in Australia and South-East Asia. In Australia he has focused on indigenous communities and land management issues. This has been written up in two books: Land is Life (published in 1999 by Allen and Unwin) which examined the historical and cultural geography of Aboriginal – European relationships since first contact in the Gulf of Carpentaria region of the Northern Territory and Working on Country (published in 2001 by Oxford University Press) which examines contemporary Indigenous management of Australia’s lands and coastal regions.