Dr Glenn Davies is a teacher, author, Australian republican activist and historian. He is Independent Australia's History Editor. He believes strongly in the epithet "publish or perish" — no matter how constant and demanding the teaching load, it is vital, as historians, to be writing.
Dr Davies has been studying and documenting the history to the republican debate in Australia for over 30 years and has published extensively in Australian political history through academic journals and chapters, newspapers and online journals, as well as national curriculum project units.
Dr Davies completed his BA (Hons) in political history at James Cook University in 1988 on a study of a late nineteenth century north Queensland republican movement. In 1990, he completed a Graduate Diploma in Education at Adelaide University. In 1991, he was awarded an International Graduate Teaching Assistantship in the Department of Political Science, Illinois State University. From 1995-1999 he tutored in History at Central Queensland University. Dr Davies received his PhD in 2005 from University of New England on the history of Australian republicanism. Since 2016 he has lectured in History Education in the Faculty of Education & Arts, Australian Catholic University, Banyo.
Dr Davies is Head of Social Sciences & Languages, Craigslea State High School in northern Brisbane. Since 1992, he has taught Senior Ancient and Modern History and Junior History in state high schools around Queensland. For over 26 years, he has undertaken a wide array of roles in Queensland education ranging from classroom teacher to senior school administrator. During the past 23 years, he has worked as a Head of Department in Social Sciences, in Humanities, in Information Technology, and in Business at four Queensland state high schools and as Acting Deputy Principal in five different state high schools.
Dr Davies is active at a State and National level in History curriculum development. Since 1999, he has written six secondary history textbooks designed for the Queensland, Victorian and New South Wales syllabuses, and has become an acknowledged curriculum expert on the teaching of Ancient Roman history. He has held important leadership roles in History curriculum development with the Queensland Studies Authority, now QCAA, has been a State Executive member, Queensland History Teachers’ Association since 2002, and for the past fifteen years has been QHTA ePublishing Manager.
Dr Glenn Davies was raised and educated in the north Queensland goldfield community of Charters Towers. He has been involved in politics since his student union days at James Cook University in the 1980s. Over the past 20 years, he has held branch and state conference elected positions within the Queensland Teachers’ Union and the Australian Labor Party.
Dr Davies has been a member of the Australian Republic Movement since 1993. At the 1999 Republican Referendum, he ran the ‘Yes’ campaign at the Glasshouse Mountains booth. In 2007, Glenn was elected Queensland State Secretary, ARM and re-elected in 2009. From 2010 to 2017 he was Queensland State Convener, Australian Republic Movement and held a seat on the ARM National Committee. Since then he has continued as an ARM Queensland State Council elected member.
Dr Davies was the editor of the long-running Queensland ARM quarterly newsletter, Armlet, in the late 2000s as well as the bi-monthly national Republican Roundup and monthly national Campaign Update in the early 2010s. He has blogged monthly since 2006 on Australian republic issues, was convener for ‘Stories of the Australian Republic’ speculative fiction short story competition (2009-2014), from which he edited Speculating on the Australian Republic: Five Award-Winning Short Stories, and in 2016 had his short story The Sunshine Republic published in 1,000 Words or Less: Flash Fiction Collection 1.
Dr Glenn Davies was named 2015 Australian Republican of the Year.
In any spare time, which seems increasingly rare, he is an occasional science fiction writer, is a member of Vision Writers, has read slush pile for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and been an Aurealis Award Science Fiction Short Story Judge.
If you’re making one, he prefers his coffee instant with lots of milk. No sugar. Thanks.
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