Australia Studies Institute

About us

The Australia Studies Institute at King’s College London is the UK’s leading centre for the academic study of Australia and its global relations.

We conduct and support academic research, teach at Bachelor’s, Master's and PhD levels, and engage wider audiences through regular public-facing events.

We acknowledge that this Institute stands in London, a centre of colonisation whose legacy extends across many lands, including Australia. In this space, we recognise the enduring connection, care, knowledge, and custodianship that First Nations Australians have maintained for their Country and communities since time immemorial.

The Annual Menzies Lecture

The Menzies Lecture is delivered by a distinguished person, of any nationality, to reflect on a subject of contemporary interest affecting Britain and Australia.

The 2025 lecture titled 'The Life of Emily Kam Kngwarray' was delivered on 22 October at Tate Modern by Kelli Cole, Australian First Nations Curator. Kngwarray was a pivotal figure in the artistic revolution that redefined contemporary Aboriginal art with her unique style and powerful creative vision, earning her worldwide attention. This talk explored the life of one of the most significant painters to emerge in the late 20th century.

The Annual Reese Lecture

The Reese Memorial Lecture is given in honour of Dr Trevor Reese, a distinguished historian of the British Commonwealth and Australia and Reader at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the Institute’s home from 1982 to 1999. The lecture is given by an emerging scholar in the disciplines of history or political science.

The 2025 Reese Lecture titled 'Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law', was presented Dr Alecia Simmonds. She examined how vernacular understandings of romantic objects came to have official legal status and how medical and psychiatric knowledge intersected with law’s epistemology, or how law knows what it thinks it knows.