BA (Hons) (UNSW) 1965, PhD (UNSW) 1972
Dr Jessica Milner Davis graduated from UNSW with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 1965 and gained her PhD in Comedy in 1972. She became the first woman to be a member of UNSW Council in 1965 and UNSW’s first woman Deputy Chancellor in 1981, later serving as Pro-Chancellor until 2006. During this time she also taught as an Honorary Research Associate and later Senior Visiting Fellow in the School of English, Media, and Performing Arts. Dr Milner Davis’ research focuses on comic genres and the history and cross-cultural study of humour. Dr Milner Davis has written and edited multiple books on these topics including Farce (2003) and Understanding Humor in Japan, which won the 2008 AATH book-prize for humour research. She co-ordinates the Australasian Humour Studies Network and in 2018 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Humor Studies for her interdisciplinary research on humour. Dr Milner Davis is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge.
