Christina Slade

Professor Christina M. Slade was born in Adelaide (29 June 1953) and grew up in South Australia. Educated at the Australian National University, she achieved a Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy (1982). Slade is married to a former Australian ambassador and has two children.

At the start of 2012, Slade was appointed to her current position as Vice-Chancellor of Bath Spa University. As Chief Executive, she is responsible for the University’s strategic plan, financial management, academic quality and the external profile.

One of her first projects was the major re-development of Newton Park campus (investment of £40 million), providing world-class facilities for students. She is also driving forward a strong international agenda. She herself has linked studies in New York, Montreal, Brussels, Beirut, Oxford, Nairobi, Islamabad, Canberra and Adelaide.

Professor Christina Slade brings a wealth of experience from her previous role as Dean of the Schools of Arts and of Social Sciences and Shadow Deputy Vice-Chancellor at City University London (2009–12). She has been Dean of Humanities at Macquarie University (2003-9) and Professor of Media Theory at the University of Utrechtin which capacity she led a €1.25 million seven nation EU funded project entitled ‘Media and Citizenship: transnational television cultures reshaping political identities in the EU.’ At the University of Canberra (2001-3), Slade was Head of School for Creative Communication and developed a suite of modularised online Masters in New Media.

Trained as a philosopher of logic and language, her research has focused on issues of the media since 1990. Her monograph, ‘The Real Thing: doing philosophy with media’ (2002) examines the role of reason in the media, while ‘From Migrant to Citizen: testing language, testing culture’, (2010) jointly edited with Martina Möllering, looks at linguistic, legal and philosophical aspects of citizenship testing. Slade has received a total of $5 million in external grants.

Following her Doctorate, further qualifications include; Top Management Programme 19 (2009–10), Diploma French (1989), Diploma of Teaching English as a Second Language (1975), Certified Teacher Trainer (1988) and Diploma of Education (1986).

Slade is a member of several National and International Committees including; Universities United Kingdom, Association of Commonwealth Universities, Institute of Directors, Royal Society of Arts and the European Association of International Education. She was also Chair of the Philosophy of Communication Division for the International Communication Association (2004-7). Involved in community organisations, Slade is an Honorary Life Patron for the Society of Philosophy for the Young ACT.

• Fondación Carolina award from Spanish Government (2005)
• Rector’s Award, Universidad Ibero Americana (1998)
• Harkness Fellowship, New York University (1996-7)
• Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan, Somerville College, Oxford (1976-7)
• National Undergraduate Scholarship, Australian National University (1972–74)

• Member, Council for Humanities Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS)
• Member of Board, Australian Services Round table: services industry lobby group
• Chair of Board, Macquarie Ancient History Museum
• Chair of Board, Australian Centre for Numismatics
• Chair of Board, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature
• Member of Board, Centre for Middle East Studies
• Deputy Chair of Board, Innovative Research University European Union Centre
• Director, Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies