AWARDS, HONOURS, AND RECOGNITIONS

RMIT Distinguished Professor Award

2025

Elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Science in Australia

2024

Australian Political Science Association (APSA) 2024 Mayer Journal Prize for Best Article in Australian Journal of Political Science: Bessant, J., Collin, P., and Rob Watts, R., 2023, ‘Blah, blah, blah … [not] business as usual’: politics through the lens of young female climate leaders’, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 477–493, https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2023.2224239

2024

Award for Research Impact Design, RMIT University

2021

Honorary Adjunct Professor, School of Justice, Faculty of Law, QUT, Brisbane

2011–21

Member of the Order of Australia (AM). Citation: Significant service to education as a social scientist, advocate and academic specialising in youth studies research.

2017

A Special Issue of the Journal of Sociology identified the 1996 article ‘The discovery of an Australian “juvenile underclass”’ as a key contribution that defined the field of youth sociology over the past 40 years. https://journals.sagepub.com/page/jos/youth

2020

University Excellence in Teaching Award, Australian Catholic University

1998

Australian Association for Research in Education National Research Fellowship for Excellence in Research

1993

Commonwealth Government Postgraduate Scholarship

1983-88

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Education, La Trobe University

1988