Professor Keith Dowding of the ANU School of Politics and International Relations was this week promoted to the rank of Distinguished Professor Level E3 – the highest academic accolade granted by the ANU.

Professor Dowding joined the ANU in July 2007, after graduating with a DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1987 and having held previous academic appointments at the University of Oxford, Brunel University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Professor Dowding has published extensively on political power, freedom, rights, equality, responsibility, explanation in political science, rational choice methods, on the British civil service, prime ministers, ministerial selection and de-selection, attitudes to public service quality, and policy agendas in Australia. His most recent books are Power, Luck and Freedom (2017), Policy Agendas in Australia (2016), The Philosophy and Methods of Political Science (2016), The Selection of Ministers Around the World (2015), Exits, Voices and Social Investment: Citizens’ Responses to Public Services (2012), and Accounting for Ministers: The Hiring and Firing of Ministers in British Government 1945 – 2007 (2012). He edited the Journal of Theoretical Politics for 16 years, and is the series editor of Routledge Research on Social and Political Elites.

Keith continues to chair a network of scholars researching the 'Selection and De-selection of Political Elites' (SEDEPE), and is actively involved in a wide range of academic committees. In being promoted to Level E3, Keith joins Professor Ian McAllister as the School’s only other current Distinguished Professor.

The staff and students of the School congratulate Keith on this well-deserved accolade.