Judith Brett

Judith Margaret Brett
Born1949 (age 74–75)
Melbourne, Australia
AwardsErnest Scott Prize (1993, 2004)
Member of the Order of Australia (2023)
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne (BA) (PhD)
University of Oxford (DipSocAnth)
ThesisThe Milk of Language: A Psycho-Analytic Interpretation of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Chandos Crisis (1980)
InfluencesDennis Altman[1]
Academic work
InstitutionsLa Trobe University (1989-2012)
Main interestsCultural history, political history
Notable worksAustralian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class (2003)
Robert Menzies' Forgotten People (1992)

Judith Margaret Brett AM (born 1949, Melbourne) is an Emeritus Professor of politics at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.[2][3] She retired from La Trobe in 2012, after a restructuring of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in which the School of which she was head was dismantled.[4]

Her PhD from Melbourne University’s Politics Department in the 1970s was on Austrian fin-de-siècle poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal.[5]

Brett's 2017 biography of Alfred Deakin won the 2018 National Biography Award.[6] Her next book, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got Compulsory Voting,[7] was shortlisted for the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards University of Southern Queensland History Book Award.[8]

Brett was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2023 Australia Day Honours.[9]

  1. ^ "Judith Brett".
  2. ^ "The origins of the beloved democracy sausage? It's a long-time love affair" SBS News. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  3. ^ "The end of certainty: Reeling Liberals look to rebuilding from wreckage" Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  4. ^ "Staff profile, La Trobe University". www.latrobe.edu.au. Archived from the original on 23 June 2011.
  5. ^ Judith Brett 'Doing Politics: Writing on Public Life' Text Publishing, 2021, p.255
  6. ^ Convery, Stephanie (6 August 2018). "Judith Brett wins National Biography award for 'profound' look at life of Alfred Deakin". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  7. ^ "For Australian voters, a meaty decision" Washington Post. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  8. ^ "2019 Queensland Literary Awards Winners and Finalists". State Library of Queensland. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  9. ^ "Australia Day 2023 Honours: Full list". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.