Dr Jennifer Caruso (BA.Hons, PhD. History) is an Eastern Arrente woman whose research, writing, speaking and faciliation focuses on the contemporary impacts of Aboriginal history across the 20thCentury. Dr Caruso’s work crosses the breadth of that history. As with many Indigenous peoples, Dr Caruso’s academic career has followed its own pattern, gaining her undergraduate and honours levels as a mature age student while lecturing in Indigenous Cultures and History at the University of Adelaide.

Jenni’s approach in History is that Aboriginal experiences since the time of colonisation is an imperative education for all but more so for the empowerment of Aboriginal people through her writing and speaking which utilise both an Aboriginal knowledge position as well as a social and history approach, Dr Caruso “engages in political activism” drawing audiences into a paradigm shift bringing them to a ‘new’ and more accurate comprehension of the ongoing impacts of colonisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Jenni graduated in 2018 with her Doctoral thesis titled “Dream Phantasy of a Utopia” which uncovered the interactions between church, state, and academia (particularly anthropology) in the setting up of the Methodist Overseas Half-Caste Children’s Mission of Croker Island. Jenni is also the recipient of the prestigious Gladys Elphick Quiet Achiever Award(2017), the 2018 South Australian NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award, shortlisted for the 2019 Premier’s NAIDOC Award, and most recently included in the South Australian Women’s Honour Roll.