Judy Brett joined La Trobe in 1989 to teaching and research 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. She retired at the end of 2013 and is currently working on a new biography of Alfred Deakin and writes regularly for The Monthly on contemporary politics. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences.