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.

Grethe Hjort (c. 1938)