Professor Gordon GreenwoodPrint Page

The Gordon Greenwood Building was erected to commemorate Emeritus Professor Gordon Greenwood (1913 - 1986) .

Awarded a Woolley travelling scholarship, Greenwood investigated Australian federalism at the London School of Economics and Political Science (Ph.D., 1939), supervised by Harold Lask. That year he took up a lecturing post at the New England University College, Armidale, New South Wales. His master’s and doctoral theses were published in revised form in 1944 and 1946. He moved to the University of Sydney as a lecturer in 1942 and was acting-professor in 1947-48.

Appointed (Sir Samuel) McCaughey professor of history at the University of Queensland in 1949, Greenwood threw himself into expanding the scope of his department, which, in 1952-65, also embraced political science. He emphasised good teaching, promoted new ideas and encouraged innovation in research topics: apart from political science he fostered work on contemporary international relations, Australian foreign policy and relations with Asia, Britain, the Commonwealth and the United States of America.

Greenwood’s published work, and that of his staff, increased substantially the status and reputation of the department. The synoptic general history Australia: A Social and Political History (1955), edited by Greenwood, was widely used as a text. He founded the Australian Journal of Politics and History in 1955 and edited it until 1982. With John Laverty he produced a history of Brisbane for its centenary in 1959. Within the university Greenwood was an influential member of the senate in 1953-83.

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