Dorothy Lois Shineberg (February 1927 – 19 August 2004) was an Australian historian who specialised in Melanesian history. In 1950 she was the first Australian woman to win a Fulbright Travelling Scholarship and later taught the first courses in Pacific history at an Australian university.
. . . Dorothy Shineberg . . .
Shineberg was born in Hampton, Victoria in February 1927. After her father’s death in 1936 she and her four sisters were brought up by their mother. She won a scholarship to attend the selective Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School and later another scholarship for University of Melbourne, from which she graduated in 1946 with a BA (Hons).[1] She also had an MA from Smith College.[2] She completed her PhD (1961–1965) at the same university, with a thesis titled “The sandalwood trade in the south-west Pacific, 1830–1865, with special reference to the problems and effects of early contact between Europeans and Melanesians”.[3]
Following graduation, Shineberg tutored at the University of Melbourne in 1947. She moved to Sydney to take a position as tutor in colonial history with the Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) for three years.[1] Her colleagues included anthropologists Camilla Wedgwood and Ian Hogbin, lawyers John Kerr and Hal Wootten and poet James McAuley.[2]
In 1950 she was the first Australian woman to win a Fulbright Travelling Scholarship which took her to Smith College in Massachusetts for two years where she completed a Master of Arts.[2] Her work was influenced by Italian historian and anti-Fascist Max Salvadori.[1]
On her return, she taught the first Pacific history courses ever run by any university in Australia to students at the University of Melbourne.[4] While completing her PhD thesis, Shineberg spent 1964 at the Australian National University (ANU) as research fellow in the Department of Pacific History, Research School of Pacific Studies.[4]
After a career spent in both research and teaching at ANU,[2] Shineberg retired from her position of Reader in 1988, but returned as visiting fellow.[4]
She served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pacific History from 1966 to 1997, including as co-editor from 1987 to 1990. A member of the Pacific History Association, she was granted life membership in 1998.[2]
She contributed three biographies for the Australian Dictionary of Biography – Ranulph Dacre,[5]Richard Jones[6] and Robert Towns.[7] Her research papers are held in the ANU Archives.[4]
. . . Dorothy Shineberg . . .