David Tacey is an Australian public intellectual, writer and interdisciplinary scholar. He is Emeritus Professor of Literature at La Trobe University in Melbourne and Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Canberra.
Tacey was born in Melbourne but his young adult life was spent in Alice Springs, central Australia. Growing up alongside Aboriginal cultures influenced him greatly and he has maintained a lifelong interest in Aboriginal religions, indigenous health and wellbeing. His secondary education was conducted at Alice Springs High School. After completing secondary school in 1970, he worked as a labourer for a year to fund his future university education. He studied literature, philosophy and art history at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, where he obtained his BA (Honours) in 1975. He transferred to the University of Adelaide and completed his PhD in literature and analytical psychology in 1981.