Staff profile

Professor Judith Brett

Head of School (Social Sciences)

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Social Sciences

Social Sciences Building 427, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA, PhD (Melbourne), DipSocAnthrop (Oxford).

Membership of professional Associations

Vice President, Australasian Association of Political Science.

Area of study

Australian Studies
International Relations
Politics

Brief Profile

Judy Brett has been at La Trobe since 1989, teaching and writing about Australian politics and political history. She is committed to engaged political research, bringing the fruits of her enquiry to the general public through books written for a broad general readership and through the media. Currently she is working on a new biography of Alfred Deakin in order to re-enliven his place in the contemporary Australian political imagination. She is also Head of the School of Social Sciences where she is overseeing a process of generational change so that younger scholars can have as satisfying and productive a working life at La Trobe as she has enjoyed.

Research interests

Australian Government and Politics

- Australian politics and society

- Political biography

Political Theory and Political Philosophy

- Liberalism

Teaching Units

  • POL1AUP First Year Australian Politics.
  • POL2/3NAS Nations and States.
  • POL2/3CAP Contemporary Australian Politics and Public Policy.
  • Ordinary People’s Politics (Doing Qualitative Sociology – 4th year honours)

Recent Publications

Books

  • Holden, C., Trembath, R. and Brett, J. (2008) Divine Discontent: The Brotherhood of St Laurence - A History, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne.
  • Brett, J. (2007) Exit Right: The Unravelling of John Howard, Black Inc, Melbourne.
  • Brett, J. (2007) Robert Menzies' Forgotten People (preprint version [PDF 83KB]): any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.) This is a revised edition with new Introduction, Melbourne University Press.
    First published 1992, Macmillan, Melbourne. Winner 1993 Ernest Scott prize for best book of Australasian History, the 1993 Victorian Premier's Prize for Australian Studies. Shared the 1993 NSW Premier's prize for non-fiction.
  • Brett, J. and Moran, A. (2006) Ordinary People’s Politics: Australians Talk about Life, Politics and the Future of their Country, Melbourne, Pluto Australia.
  • Brett, J. (2005) Relaxed and Comfortable: The Liberal Party's Australia, Quarterly Essay number 19, Black Inc, Melbourne. Short-listed 2006 Victorian Premier's Alfred Deakin prize for essay influencing public debate.
  • Brett, J. (2003) Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Winner Earnest Scott Prize for Australasian History. Short-listed Queensland Premier's prize for non-fiction. http://www.cambridge.edu.au/australianliberals
  • Brett, J. (2002) Robert Menzies' Forgotten People, Macmillan, Melbourne. This won the 1993 Erenst Scott prize, the 1993 Victorian Premier's Prize for Australian Studies, and shared the 1993 NSW Premier's prize for non-fiction.
  • Brett, J. (ed.) (1997) Political Lives, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
  • Brett, J., Gillespie, J. and Goot, M. (eds) (1994) Developments in Australian Politics, Macmillan Education Australia.

Refereed Journal Articles

  • Brett, J. (2009) 'Graham Little's Theory of Political Leadership', International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 6(2): 103-110.
  • Sawyer, A., Green, D., Moran, A. and Brett, J. (2009) ‘Should the nurse change the light globe? Human service professionals managing risk on the frontline’, Journal of Sociology 45(4): 361-382.
  • Brett, J. (2007) ‘The Country, the City and the State in the Australian Settlement’, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol.42, No.1: 1-17. (Preprint version [PDF 98KB]): any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.)
  • Brett, J. (2002) 'Class, Party and the Foundations of the Australian Party System: A Revisionist Interpretation', Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol.37, No.1: 39-56.
  • Brett, J. (2002) 'Meetings, Parliament and Civil Society', Senate Occasional Lecture, Papers on Parliament, No.38, March, pp.43-160.
  • Brett, J. (2001) 'Retrieving the Partisan History of Australian Citizenship', Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol.36, No.3: 423-437. (Henry Mayer Prize for best article in AJPS.)

Book Chapters

  • Brett, J. (2009) 'The Inter-war Foundations of Australian Political Science', in R.A.W. Rhodes The Australian Study of Politics', Palgrave Macmillan, UK.
  • Brett, J. (2009) 'The fortunes of my own little band': The Dilemma of Deakin and the Liberal Protectionists', in P. Strangio and N. Dyrenfurth (eds) Confusion: The Making of the Australian Two-Party System, Melbourne University Press, pp.23-44.
  • Brett, J. (2007) 'Introduction to New Edition', in J. Brett Robert Menzies' Forgotten People, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, pp.1-16.
  • Brett, J. (2007) 'The Turning Tide', in D. Modjeska (ed.) The Best Australian Essays 2007, Black Inc, Melbourne, pp.321-328.
  • Brett, J. (2007) ‘Political Culture’, in Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts (eds) Oxford Companion to Australian Politics, Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
  • Brett, J. (2006) 'The Liberal Party', in Andrew Parkin, Government, Politics, Power and Policy in Australia, Pearson Education Australia, pp.206-225.
  • Brett, J. (2006) ‘Pride’, in Peter Beilharz and Robert Manne (eds) Reflected Light: La Trobe Essays, Black Inc, Melbourne, pp.225-241.
  • Brett, J. (2006) ‘The Chook in the Australian Unconscious’, in Peter Beilharz and Robert Manne (eds) Reflected Light: La Trobe Essays, Black Inc, Melbourne, 327-332.
  • Brett, J. (2004) 'The New Liberalism', in Robert Manne (ed.) The Howard Years, Black inc Press, Melbourne, pp.74-93.
  • Brett, J. (2003) ‘The Tasks of Political Biography’, in Joy Damousi and Robert Reynolds (eds) History on the Couch: Essays in History and Psychoanalysis, Melbourne University Press. Republication of revised version of an essay first published in Judith Brett (ed.) Political Lives, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1997.
  • Brett, J. (2000) 'Competition and Collegiality', in Tony Coady (ed.) Why Universities Matter, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp.144-55.
  • Brett, J. (2000) 'Stanley Melbourne Bruce', in Michelle Grattan (ed.) Australian Prime Ministers, New Holland Press, Sydney, pp.126-138.

Non-refereed Articles

  • Brett, J. (2007) 'Political Culture', in Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts (eds) Oxford Companion to Australian Politics, Melbourne.
  • Brett, J. (2007) 'Howard Undone', The Monthly, Dec-Jan, No.30.
  • Brett, J. (2007) 'Why Howard will lose', The Age, special Election Feature, 31 October, pp.12-13.
  • Brett, J. (2007) 'It's Bennelong Time', The Monthly, September, No.27: 20-26.
  • Brett, J. (2007) 'Comment: Adversarial politics', The Monthly, July, No.25: 10-13.
  • Brett, J. (2007) '1949 and all that', The Monthly, May, No.23: 10-13.
  • Brett, J. (2007) 'The turning tide', The Monthly, March, No.21.
  • Brett, J. (2007) ‘Life in the Suburbs and the inner city’. Sydney Papers, Sydney Institute.
  • Brett, J. (2006) ‘Truly, deeply ordinary’, Age Insight, 16 September. Also in SMH of same date.
  • Brett, J. (2006) 'The contours of the everyday', The Monthly, September, No.16: 50-54.
  • Brett, J. (2005) 'Response to Correspondence on Quarterly Essay', No.19, Quarterly Essay No.20, pp.90-93.
  • Brett, J. (2002) 'Meetings, Parliament and Civil Society', Senate Occasional Lecture, Papers on Parliament, No.38, March, pp.43-160.
  • Brett, J. (1998) ‘Paul Keating’, ‘The Petrov Affair’  in  Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds),  Oxford Companion to Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, pp.361-2; 502-3.

Research projects

  • Ordinary People's Politics
  • Continuing research interest in the Liberal Party and John Howard
  • I have been involved in an ARC Linkage Project (2006-2009) entitled ‘Managing risk in community services: a preliminary study of the impacts of risk management on Victorian services and clients’. This is a qualitative research project that explored the way in which ‘risk management’ has been taken up and translated into practice by Victorian community-based services across three fields – disability, aged care and mental health. It reports on in-depth interviews with senior-level managers (including chief executive officers), program managers and team leaders, frontline workers, service users and family carers. Summary [PDF 140KB] | Full Report [PDF 830KB].

Research Grants

  • 2006-2008 - CI ARC Linkage Grant. ‘Managing Risk in community services: A preliminary study of the impact of risk management on Victorian services and clients.
  • 2004-2005 - CI ARC Linkage Grant. The History of the Brotherhood of St Laurence.
  • 2002-2004 - CI ARC Discovery. Understanding a Changing Australia: Ordinary People’s Politics.
  • 2001 and 2004 - CI ARC Linkage Infrastructure and Equipment Grant. Argus on Line.

Graduate Supervision

I am happy to supervise postgraduate students in:

  • Anything on Australian nonlabour history and ideology
  • Australian political biography
  • Political language and rhetoric

I am currently supervising MA and PhD theses in the following areas:

  • Political Identity Formation and Employment Casualisation in the Australian Electorate
  • The Limits of Liberalism and the Quest for Autonomy in (post) Modernity.
  • The ALP and the Environment: 1983-1996.
  • The Experience of Australian Postgraduates in the US in the 1950s and 1960s.
  • The Experience of People with Intellectual Disabilities Participating in Policy Consultation.
  • History of the Development of Risk Management Practices in the Community Service Sector.