{{short description|Australian political scientist and writer (born 1949)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}} {{Infobox scholar | name = Judith Margaret Brett | image = | imagesize = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1949}} | birth_place = Melbourne, Australia | death_date = | death_place = | era = | region = | workplaces = La Trobe University (1989–2012) | alma_mater = University of Melbourne (BA) (PhD)<br/>University of Oxford (DipSocAnth) | thesis_title = The Milk of Language: A Psycho-Analytic Interpretation of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Chandos Crisis | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1980 | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | school_tradition = | main_interests = Cultural history, political history | principal_ideas = | major_works = ''Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class'' (2003)<br/>''Robert Menzies' Forgotten People'' (1992) | awards = Ernest Scott Prize (1993, 2004)<br/>Member of the Order of Australia (2023) | influences = Dennis Altman<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latrobe.edu.au/about/vision/diversity-and-inclusion/square-the-ledger/judith-brett|title=Judith Brett|publisher=La Trobe University}}</ref> | influenced = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Judith Margaret Brett''' {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|AM}} (born 1949, Melbourne) is an Emeritus Professor of politics at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.<ref>[https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/the-origins-of-the-beloved-democracy-sausage-its-a-long-time-love-affair/ "The origins of the beloved democracy sausage? It's a long-time love affair"], SBS News. {{Retrieved|access-date=7 June 2022}}.</ref><ref>[https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-end-of-certainty-for-the-liberals-20220522-p5anjs.html "The end of certainty: Reeling Liberals look to rebuilding from wreckage"], ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. {{Retrieved|access-date=7 June 2022}}.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/about/staff/profile?uname=JMBrett |title=Staff profile|publisher=La Trobe University|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623230202/http://www.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/about/staff/profile?uname=JMBrett |archive-date=2011-06-23}}</ref>
Her PhD from Melbourne University's Politics Department in the 1970s was on Austrian fin-de-siècle poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal.<ref>Judith Brett. ''Doing Politics: Writing on Public Life''. Text Publishing, 2021, p. 255</ref>
Brett's 2017 biography of Alfred Deakin won the 2018 National Biography Award.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/06/judith-brett-wins-national-biography-award-for-profound-look-at-life-of-alfred-deakin|title=Judith Brett wins National Biography award for 'profound' look at life of Alfred Deakin|last=Convery|first=Stephanie|date=2018-08-06|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=2018-08-06}}</ref> Her next book, ''From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got Compulsory Voting'',<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/18/australia-election-democracy-sausage/ "For Australian voters, a meaty decision"] by Michael E. Miller and Frances Vinall, 18 May 2022, ''The Washington Post''. {{Retrieved|access-date=7 June 2022}}.</ref> was shortlisted for the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards University of Southern Queensland History Book Award.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/2019-queensland-literary-awards-winners-and-finalists|title=2019 Queensland Literary Awards Winners and Finalists|publisher=State Library of Queensland|access-date=29 January 2020}}</ref>
Brett was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2023 Australia Day Honours.<ref>{{Cite It's an Honour|date=2023-01-26|ausawardid=2012465|recipient=Dr Judith Margaret Brett|award=Member of the Order of Australia|postnominal=AM|access-date=20 April 2025}}</ref>
==Bibliography== {{Incomplete list|date=July 2017}}
===As author=== *Brett, Judith, ''Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class'' (2003), Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-521-53634-9}} *with Anthony Moran, ''Ordinary Peoples' Politics'' (2006), Pluto Press Australia, {{ISBN|978-1-864-03257-4}} *— 百年回顧: 中國國民黨駐澳洲總支部歷史文物彙編 [A century of review: A collection of historical relics of the Chinese Kuomintang's Australian branch] / ''Unlocking the History of the Australasian Kuo Min Tang 1911–2013'' (2013), Australian Scholarly Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1-925-003 260}} *— ''Robert Menzies' Forgotten People'' (2007), Melbourne University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-522-85391-9}} *— ''The Enigmatic Mr Deakin'' (2018), Text Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1-925-60371-2}} *— ''From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting'' (2019), Text Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1-925-60384-2}} *— ''Fearless Beatrice Faust: Sex, Feminism and Body Politics'' (2024), Text Publishing, {{ISBN|9781923058316}}<ref>{{multiref|{{cite book|last=Brett|first=Judith|author-link=Judith Brett|title=Fearless Beatrice Faust: Sex, Feminism and Body Politics|year=2024|publisher=Text Publishing|isbn=9781923058316|url=https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/fearless-beatrice-faust-sex-feminism-and-body-politics|access-date=20 April 2025|ref=none}}|{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-20/beatrice-faust-womens-electoral-lobby-judith-brett-female-votes/105128398|access-date=20 April 2025|title=Meet the woman who turned female votes into political dynamite|author=Judith Brett|publisher=ABC News (Australia)|type=edited extract|ref=none}}}}</ref>
===As editor=== *Brett, Judith, ''Political Lives'' (1997) Allen & Unwin, {{ISBN|978-1-74269-679-9}}
===Journal articles and ''Quarterly Essays''=== *''Quarterly Essay 19 Relaxed & Comfortable: The Liberal Party's Australia'' (2005) {{ISBN|978-1-86395-094-7}} *''Quarterly Essay 28 Exit Right: The Unravelling of John Howard'' (2007) {{ISBN|978-1-86395-111-1}} *''Quarterly Essay 42 Fair Share: Country and City in Australia'' (2011) {{ISBN|978-1-86395-526-3}} *{{cite journal |author=Brett, Judith |author-mask=1 |date=August 2014 |title=Freedom, or nothing left to lose |department=The Nation Reviewed |magazine=The Monthly|volume=103 |pages=8–10 |url=https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/august/1406815200/judith-brett/must-we-choose-between-climate-change-action-and-freedom <!--accessdate=-->|ref=none}} (Online version is titled "Must we choose between climate-change action and freedom of speech?".) *''Quarterly Essay 78 The Coal Curse: Resources, Climate and Australia's Future'' (2020) {{ISBN|978-1-76064-229-7}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/display/jmbrett "Brett's profile"], La Trobe University
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brett, Judith}} Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:Australian political scientists Category:Members of the Order of Australia Category:Academic staff of La Trobe University Category:The Monthly people Category:People from Melbourne Category:21st-century Australian writers Category:21st-century Australian women writers Category:Australian biographers Category:Australian women biographers Category:Australian women political scientists Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
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