Professor Emeritus Edna Chamberlain AM

1995

CITATION

Award of Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa

Professor Emeritus Edna Chamberlain AM

Mr Chancellor,

Edna Chamberlain was born in Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, and witnessed during her adolescence the poverty and social deprivation of the Depression which were to influence her own professional directions. She left school at 15 to work as a clerk typist in the Department of Agriculture and Stock, completed matriculation at night school and began part-time study for the degree of Bachelor of Commerce with which she graduated in 1943. In 1944 she moved to Melbourne to take the Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work, worked for the Red Cross Society in Victoria, and became Director of Red Cross Social Services for Tasmania in 1946. She also worked for the Repatriation Hospital's Medical Social Work Department and became a member of the Marriage Guidance Council, of which she became secretary. In 1959, after the death of her husband Lyle, she returned to Brisbane, accepted a position in the University's Education Department, working with Professor Fred Schonell, and was in 1967 appointed to a Lectureship in the Social Work Department. She had already completed a Masters degree in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, the Mecca of social workers, and she extended her international experience in 1969 with sabbatical leave at the Tavistock Clinic, London, and the University of Michigan. She became Head of Social Work in 1973, after a period of acting headship, and was appointed to a Chair in 1974, as the first Professor of Social Work in Australia and only the third woman to be appointed to a Chair at the University of Queensland. She was an inspirational figure in developing and promoting social work and social work education throughout Australia, serving as President of the Australian Association of Social Workers, the Australian Association of Social Work Educators and the Asia Pacific Assocation of Social Work Education. She also served on the Social Welfare and the Commonwealth Legal Aid Commissions in the 'seventies and innumerable State government and other bodies in Queensland. After her retirement in 1986 and despite ill-health which has accompanied her through life, she has remained heavily involved in the Department's research and postgraduate programs, particularly the socio-therapy program for sufferers from Parkinson's Disease, and was associated with the establishment of the Welfare Rights Centre. Her contribution to professional education, community service and social justice were recognised in 1988 when she became a Member of the Order of Australia. 

Mr Chancellor, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the University of Queensland, to the social work profession and to community services in Australia, I present to you one of the University's most loved and respected figures, Emeritus Professor Edna Chamberlain, AM, BCom Queensland, DipSocStud Melbourne, MA Chicago, for the conferral of the award of Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa, to which she has been admitted by the Senate of the University. 

Awards

Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa
1995