March 2026 Newsletter

The AFAANZ Research Fund (ARF) Annual Grants Program

The AFAANZ Research Fund (ARF) Annual Grants Program is designed to encourage and support members by providing funding for research projects. The 2026 round will focus on quality projects that address or respond to contemporary and future challenges to, and/or have implications for, accounting and finance practice, policy and/or the professions.

Grants are competitive and are primarily intended to support small-scale projects of up to one year’s duration or to assist in seed funding for larger scale projects. The pool of funds comes directly from fees paid by institutional members. As such, access to the ARF is limited to AFAANZ individual members based at a member institution.

Applications are accepted from either mid-career or developing researchers (supported by an established researcher as mentor). In this round, developing or mid-career researchers are permitted to be named on only one application submitted.

To view further information about grant categories, eligibility and the application process please see HERE .

To download the Dean or Head supporting letter template to upload with your application, click HERE. A word version of this document is available on the Research Grant website page.

Application Closing Date: 14 April 2026

Access the grant application system at https://pitchmyresearch.com/grants

You will receive an email of confirmation from pitchmyresearch@gmail.com on successful submission.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR

JOINT EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL

Accounting History

One of the Joint Editors of Accounting History has announced their intention to retire at the end of 2026. The AFAANZ Board and SAGE are now seeking applications for a new joint editor for their journal, Accounting History. The appointment will be for a three-year period, and the Board may decide to grant a further term of up to three years to each joint editor upon formal consultation with the joint editors, the Accounting History Special Interest Group (AHSIG) and SAGE.

The applicant should be an AFAANZ and AHSIG member and be able to demonstrate: excellence in their own accounting history research, journal editing experience, the ability to foster and support diverse research in the journal, the capacity to add to the duties of joint editorship within their workload, and that he/she has the support for the role from their university.

The applicant should be able to work collaboratively with the current joint editors of Accounting History, whose terms expire as follows: Carolyn Fowler in December 2029 and Laura Maran in December 2029. This succession arrangement values continuity as well as innovation.

A Selection Committee will be formed by the AFAANZ Board to make a recommendation to the full Board and SAGE. The Selection Committee comprises:

A current AFAANZ President
The current Accounting History publishing editor at SAGE
The convenor of the AFAANZ AHSIG
The two current Accounting History Editors; and
Two members of AFAANZ who have journal editing experience and represent research areas and methods that reflect the aims and scope of Accounting History.

The new joint editor will work with the current editors from the date of the announcement and take over as joint editor on 1 January 2027.

The key qualities and criteria to be considered in the selection of the new joint editor are:

Current member of AFAANZ and AHSIG;
Excellence of applicant’s own research record in accounting history;
Demonstration of sharing the fundamental values of the Journal;
Journal editing experience;
Ability to foster and support diverse research in the journal;
Capacity to handle a demanding workload and meet deadlines; and
Demonstrate support from their university for them to undertake this role.

The joint editor should also be able to work towards the strategic aims of the Journal as reported in the strategic plan and shared with the Accounting History community of reference.

The Editors of Accounting History manage workload across all the editors, and the applicant should be willing to take on the following duties in part or jointly with the other editors. These are to ensure that, strategically, Accounting History:

Contributes to building a broad, diverse and international community of accounting historians;
Encourages and publishes interesting, well-researched, and high-quality articles;
Continues to be a high-ranked, international Journal, which endeavours to be the point of reference for scholars of accounting history.

These duties include:

Developing strategies to meet the strategic aims of the journal;
Cultivating the Accounting History network through attendance at the relevant national and international forums;
Actively soliciting journal papers at domestic and international forums;
Actively promoting the journal domestically and internationally;
Ensuring a collaborative and supportive relationship with SAGE, which encompasses paper production, website maintenance, collegial discussion on publisher’s performance indicators and on any issue that may emerge from one or the other side;
Managing journal submissions in an efficient manner;
Editing and delivering papers to SAGE for publication on a timely basis;
Working with the SAGE peer review assistant in a collegial and cooperative manner;
Meeting with and coordinating the wider editorial team, including Associate Editors, Editorial Advisory Panel, and Editorial Board members;
Where necessary replacing/appointing new members to the above team;
Consulting with the AFAANZ Journal Oversight Committee and AFAANZ Board throughout the year; and
Providing an editor’s report to be considered by the AFAANZ Board at their Board meetings and at the AHSIG AGM.

The appointment will be for a five-year period, and the AFAANZ board may decide to grant a further term of up to five years to each joint editor upon formal consultation with the joint editors, the AHSIG Convenor and SAGE Publishing Editor.

HOW TO APPLY:

All applications are to be emailed in confidence to info@afaanz.org by 31 May 2026. Submissions should include:

Letter/statement, no more than four pages long, dealing with each of the seven key qualities and criteria described above;
Statement outlining the applicant’s strategies for meeting the strategic aims of Accounting History (one page); and
Curriculum vitae.

ANY QUESTIONS?

Prospective applicants are welcome to contact (in confidence) Yaowen Shan or Nives Botica-Redmayne and/ or one of the current joint editors of Accounting History to discuss or clarify anything relating to the role or the process.

All applications will be considered by the Selection Committee. The Committee reserves the right to invite individuals to apply.

Yaowen Shan, President (Australia)

Nives Botica-Redmayne, President (New Zealand)

MYOB is excited to support the Australian Accounting Awards 2026, one of the key events in the accounting and finance calendar, held on 12 June at The Star, Sydney.

For AFAANZ members, a real highlight is the Academic of the Year category, recognising educators who are shaping the next generation of accounting and business professionals through outstanding teaching, research and industry engagement.

If you, or a colleague in your department, has been going above and beyond for your students, MYOB encourages you to submit a nomination for Academic of the Year by 20 March.

You can learn more about the criteria and lodge your nomination via the Australian Accounting Awards website HERE:

AFAANZ AWARDS

AFAANZ - Best PhD Award

The Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand seeks to advance accounting and finance research by recognising and rewarding outstanding work of early career researchers. The Best PhD Award is being awarded each year to recognise the student of an outstanding accounting/finance PhD completed during the previous calendar year.

For more details, click here . Nominations close on 31 March 2026.

To register, click HERE

To view all the current Call for Papers from our Institutional Members and journals, click on the Call button above.

Call for Abstracts – 2026 Accounting for Indigenous Perspectives Special Interest Group

Theme: Still Here, Still Deadly: Reimagining Accounting Research through an Indigenous Lens

We invite submissions for paper presentations or panels that centre on Indigenous voices, knowledges, and experiences in accounting and finance related research. This event will explore how accounting and finance scholarship can be reimagined through Indigenous worldviews, challenge colonial structures embedded in institutions, and contribute to self‑determination, truth‑telling, and justice for First Nations peoples in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

We welcome abstracts that focus on research that:

Engages with Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies in accounting and finance research
Critically examines how existing standards, regulations, or reporting frameworks affect Indigenous communities, organisations, or governance structures
Highlights case studies, partnerships, or collaborations with Indigenous communities, organisations, or leaders that foreground Indigenous agency and consent
Uses innovative, culturally safe, or community‑driven methodologies to generate insights that are meaningful to Indigenous stakeholders
Demonstrates strategies for knowledge translation that respect Indigenous intellectual property, protocols, and decision‑making processes

Submission Details
Interested persons are invited to submit an abstract of up to 250 words to Professor Kerry Bodle at [k.bodle@griffith.edu.au] by 21 May 2026. Successful applicants will be notified by 26 May 2026 and will be required to submit a one‑page summary of their study or research project by 18 June 2026.

We look forward to receiving contributions that showcase how accountability research, grounded in Indigenous perspectives, can challenge dominant paradigms and support transformative change in policy, practice, and institutions.

Following the resounding success of the 24th Accounting History Symposium, the Accounting History Special Interest Group (AHSIG) is delighted to announce its first event of 2026. The 25th Accounting History Symposium will take place on Saturday, 4 July 2025, at Pullman Albert Park Hotel, Melbourne, Australia. This year, we are honored to welcome Professor Karen McBride as our keynote speaker, with Dr Maryam Safari presiding as the session chair.

Professor Karen McBride is a Professor of Accounting at the University of Portsmouth. A qualified Chartered Accountant and Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, she has established an international reputation for her research on accounting history and the historical foundations of social, environmental, and ecological accounting. Her research further encompasses corporate governance and ethics, environmental and corporate social responsibility reporting, and equity, diversity, and inclusion in accounting.

She currently serves as Chair of the Accounting History Special Interest Group of the British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) and as Co-Chair of the University of Portsmouth’s interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence for Heritage Innovation. Her contributions to the field have been recognised through annual prize-winning papers in the Accounting Historians Journal (2024) and Accounting History (2023). Professor McBride has also secured external research funding across all these areas from major bodies. She will deliver a keynote presentation titled “Stories, Narratives, and Golden Threads in Accounting History Research.” Drawing on her extensive body of work, her presentation will offer a critical examination of narrative construction and interpretive storytelling within accounting history.

In addition to this distinguished keynote, we invite scholars and researchers to participate by presenting their planned or ongoing research projects. Those interested are encouraged to submit a working paper or research proposal (maximum three pages, single-spaced), including the following details:

Project (working) title
Background (or scenario for investigation)
Main research objective in one sentence
Concise key research question(s)
Research methodology
Period selection
Limitations of the study
Expected (original) contribution

The due date for submission of research proposals is Sunday, 19 April 2026. The proposals should be sent to acchis.sig@gmail.com (please also copy in maryam.safari@rmit.edu.au and lina.xu@rmit.edu.au). Please leave a note in the email listing all authors in the specified order of authorship. In addition to the presentation of research proposals on accounting history, a panel of esteemed scholars will be in attendance to provide feedback and engage in discussions with participants. To recognize outstanding contributions, a $200 prize will be awarded to the best research proposal presented in person. The winner will be selected by the panel and announced at the symposium.

Participants can register via the AFAANZ website, with the following registration fees applicable:

AHSIG members: $70

AHSIG non-members: $95

The registration fee will cover the catering, including morning tea and lunch.

We look forward to your participation at the 25th Accounting History Symposium.
Dr Maryam Safari
AHSIG Chair and Symposium Convenor (and Lina Xu, Deputy Chair and Deputy Convenor)