Renate Thelma Howe AM (born 1939) is an Australian academic and historian. Her research and writing focuses on Australian social, urban and religious history.
Howe was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1939. [1] She was educated at East Kew State School and University High School, matriculating in 1956. Her tertiary education included a BA from the University of Melbourne and further studies at University of Chicago. During her student years, she was active in the Student Christian Movement and the ALP Club. She also spent two years on the Students' Representative Council. She was awarded a PhD in 1972. [2]
Howe tutored at the University of Melbourne from 1969 to 1974. In 1977 she was appointed to the team to set up distance education at Deakin University where she remained for most of her career. [2] She was a three-time board member of the Deakin University, 1982–1983, 1994–1996 and 1998–2000. On her retirement in 2005, she was appointed honorary associate professor in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University. [3]
In the 2012 Australia Day Honours, Howe was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for "service to higher education and to the arts through administrative and academic roles, and to the community, particularly through heritage and cultural organisations". [3]
Howe married Brian Howe in 1962. They had three children. [2]
Alice Miriam Olivia Garner is an Australian actor, author, musician, teacher and historian.
Sally Ann Walker is an Australian university administrator and lawyer. She served as the fifth Vice-Chancellor and President of Deakin University (2003–2010) and was the first woman to be appointed to the position.
Brian Leslie HoweAO is a retired Australian politician and Uniting Church minister. He served as the eighth deputy prime minister of Australia and the deputy leader of the Labor Party from 1991 to 1995, under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. He was a government minister continuously from 1983 to 1996, and a member of the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1996, representing the Division of Batman in Victoria.
Marie Tulip was an Australian feminist writer, academic and proponent for the ordination of women as priests.
The Housing Commission of Victoria was a Government of Victoria body responsible for public housing in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1938, and was abolished in 1984.
Frederick Oswald Barnett (1883–1972) was an Australian social reformer. He was responsible for raising public awareness of inner-city poverty and leading the campaign for improved housing conditions.
Joan Errington Beaumont, is an Australian historian and academic, who specialises in foreign policy and the Australian experience of war. She is professor emerita in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University.
Dimity Reed is an architect, urbanist and academic. She has been involved in government advisory roles, as well as writing for both The Sun and The Age newspapers.
Maxwell John Charlesworth AO FAHA was an Australian philosopher and public intellectual. He taught and wrote on a wide range of areas including the philosophy of religion and the role of the Church in a liberal democratic society; Australian Aboriginal culture and religions; European philosophy from medieval to continental; bioethics and modern science’s role in society; and the philosophy of education. In 1990, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contributions to Australian society in the fields of education and bioethics.
Ada Mary à Beckett MSc, née Lambert, was an Australian biologist, academic and leader of the kindergarten movement in Australia. She was the first woman appointed lecturer at Melbourne University.
Ivy Deakin Brookes was an Australian community worker and activist. She held leadership positions across a wide range of organisations in Victoria. She was president of the National Council of Women of Australia from 1948 to 1953.
Shurlee Lesley Swain, is an Australian social welfare historian, researcher and author. Since August 2017 she has been an Emeritus Professor at the Australian Catholic University (ACU).
Margaret Holmes was an Australian community worker specialising in refugee resettlement and program management for faith-based organisations. She ran the headquarters for the Australian Student Christian Movement from 1924 to 1945. During World War II, she helped establish the Victorian International Refugee Emergency Committee. From 1951 to 1962, she led the refugee resettlement program of the Australian Council of Churches. In recognition of her work with refugees and migrants, she was appointed MBE in 1958.
Frances Helen Christie, is Emeritus professor of language and literacy education at the University of Melbourne, and honorary professor of education at the University of Sydney. She specialises in the field of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and has completed research in language and literacy education, writing development, pedagogic grammar, genre theory, and teaching English as a mother tongue and as a second language.
Marian Quartly is an Australian social historian. She is professor emeritus in history at Monash University.
Colleen Anne O'Reilly is an Australian Anglican priest. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021 in recognition of her significant service to the Anglican Church of Australia, and to religious education. O'Reilly has been a strong advocate for women's leadership in the Anglican Church and women's ordination since the 1970s and described by Muriel Porter as "the ‘mother' of the movement that was a key factor in bringing about the ordination of women through many years of determined struggle".
Cecilia Downing was an Australian temperance and women's rights activist and leader. She was one of Australia's first child-probation officers. A devout Baptist, she was an influential leader in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Australasia, the Housewives' Association of Victoria, the Federated Association of Australian Housewives, and the Traveller's Aid Society. She was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1950.
Mary Healy, better known as Mother Gertrude, was a member of the Sisters of Charity of Australia and hospital administrator. She made significant contributions to the development of St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney and St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne.
Judith Smart is an Australian social historian and feminist.
Eleanor Mary "Ella" Latham CBE was an Australian charity worker and hospital administrator. She served as president of the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne from 1933 to 1954.