The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) is an independent, non-governmental organisation devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the social sciences. It has its origins in the Social Science Research Council of Australia, founded in 1942.
The Academy was established in 1971 to recognise and champion excellence in the social sciences and to provide evidence-based advice on a range of social policy issues.
Stephen George Wheatcroft FASSA (born 1 June 1947) is a Professorial Fellow of the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne. His research interests include Russian pre-revolutionary and Soviet social, economic and demographic history, as well as famine and food supply problems in modern world history, the impact of media on history, and in recent developments in Russian and Ukrainian society. Wheatcroft speaks Russian fluently and has spent a good portion of his career researching in the Soviet archives, and he played a major role in publishing materials from the archives.
Wheatcroft was named a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2005.