A F Davies Prize

About the donor

This prize is supported by the School of Social and Political Science to honour the life and work of Professor Alan Fraser Davies (1924-1987). A political scientist, with a deep interest in psychoanalysis, and graduate of Ormond College and the University of Melbourne (BA Hons, 1945), he described himself as a social psychologist.

As Chair and Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Melbourne, Professor Davies had a significant influence on the development of Australian political science and sociology. His contribution ranged from pioneering political psychology through to the study of local government, and through works exploring political passion, politics at work and the Australian political system. Over his career, he drew on art, film, fiction, history and psychoanalysis in his exploration of political behaviour, and Professor Davies became known as one of Australia’s most creative political scientists.

His work featured prominently in university teaching programs in political science throughout Australia and played a key role in the foundation of the Sociology discipline in Australia, particularly his research and writing on class and political sociology. Professor Davies encouraged people to articulate their projects and to discover their own potentials and impediments, while also suggesting fresh insights, different angles, and apposite readings. Driven by an unquenchable curiosity, he was a pioneer of interdisciplinary dialogue. His capacity to bring together novelists, poets, psychoanalysts, literary critics, journalists and historians, as well as political scientists, gave his department a distinctive élan—but it was a quality largely dependent on his enthusiasm.