Greta Hort

She pioneered a programme of studies including Australian and Commonwealth literature and for the first time taught English-literature courses in the English language.

[1] After teaching English literature for a short period at the university, in 1929 she moved to Cambridge where she studied at Newnham College, earning a Ph.D. in 1931.

[3] Hort won an Aurelia Henry Reinhardt International Fellowship and planned to go to Harvard University, but passed it up and moved instead to Australia.

"[3][5] Diana Dyason who was a resident at the college remembers her dreary dress and thick grey stockings, almost a caricature of her Cambridge years.

But Hort tutored competently in philosophy, demanded high academic standards and encouraged her students to develop a greater sense of freedom and self-government than was usual at the time.

[6][7] She brought with her wide experience of English literature, especially that of Australia and the Commonwealth countries, and greatly expanded the university library along these lines.

[3] In addition to the gold medal she received from the University of Copenhagen in 1925, in 1965 Hort was awarded the Tagea Brandt Travel Scholarship for her contributions to literature.