OU Honors College dean appointed Member of the Order of Australia

Graeme Harper, dean of the Donna and Walt Young Honors College at Oakland University, has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). The award was announced June 8 through the release of the “King’s Birthday Honours List,” a public holiday and honors announcement in Australia, celebrating King Charles III.

Nominations for the honor come directly from the community and are the pre-eminent way Australians recognize the achievements and service of their fellow citizens. All nominations are independently researched, then considered by the Council for the Order of Australia. The Council then makes a recommendation to Australia’s Governor-General, who officially announces the award. Honorees receive a medal and are also encouraged to use the designation AM after their name.

According to Dr. Harper, being recognized as a Member of the Order of Australia, “provides a wonderful opportunity, and I am humbled, inspired and challenged. The award also says a whole lot about the generosity of colleagues. Imagine the selflessness of people who would submit and support a nomination that, even when successful, can take years to come to fruition.”

A distinguished higher education leader, academic and author, Dr. Harper is being recognized “for significant service to literature, to education, and to creative writing.” His career has been defined by teaching, research and creative expression in each of those domains.

Dr. Harper holds doctorates from the University of East Anglia in the UK, and from the University of Technology in Australia. His Doctor of Creative Arts is the first creative writing  doctorate to be conferred in Australia, and he has taught creative writing and edited numerous journals, including “New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing.”

Additionally, he has published over 50 books, including his most recent work of fiction, “Robots and Other People” (Parlor, 2026) and his latest critical work, the edited collection “Empathy in Creative Writing” (Palgrave, 2026).

Regularly examining graduate theses, dissertations and research in the U.S., the UK, Australia, across Europe and Asia, and in Africa, Dr. Harper is also deeply committed to undergraduate research and to honors education. He served in national leadership roles at the Council for Undergraduate Research (CUR) for several years and also published multiple works about honors colleges and programs, including his most recent title “Advancing Honors for Today and Tomorrow” (2024).

Dr. Harper is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (FRSM), the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the Royal Anthropological Institutes (FRAI), all of which provide opportunities for collaborative work. He arrived at Oakland University in late 2011 to become director and then dean of OU’s Honors College. Before that, he worked with colleagues to establish two new schools of study at universities in the UK, and led both those schools.

In the Australian honors system, appointments to the Order of Australia confer the highest recognition for outstanding achievement and service. For Dr. Harper, it is particularly gratifying to be recognized for service in the fields of literature, education and creative writing.

“You most often write books on your own, yet education frequently is a shared experience and we’re charged with bringing the individual and the community together,” he said. “I love writing fiction, I love thinking critically about how we go about sharing things through creative writing, and I love working with students in all fields of endeavor and with all interests, because we share such a belief in possibility. It is the encouragement of and support for possibility and curiosity and discovery that makes this appointment to the Order of Australia even more thrilling.”