Previously known as Department of History and Political Science.

Rodney 'Rod' Munro Fisher (1942-2017) was born in Melbourne to Enid and Lance Fisher. He attended the University of Melbourne, graduating BA in 1962 and DipEd in 1963. From 1964 to 1969 he taught history and physical education in secondary schools in Victoria and in Alberta, Canada. After completing postgraduate studies and a Master's thesis on the Elizabethan theologian William Perkins at the University of Saskatchewan in 1970, Fisher went to Cambridge where he was supervised by Sir Geoffrey Elton in his doctoral dissertation The Inns of Court and the Reformation 1530-1580. In 1974 Fisher commenced teaching Tudor and Stuart history at the University of Queensland. From about 1980 Fisher began to immerse himself in local history and started offering subjects in interdisciplinary, community and applied history. Fisher put his ideas into practice by restoring a shop-house in Wellington Street, Petrie Terrace and by organising walking tours of the suburbs of Brisbane. In 1981 he co-founded the Brisbane History Group with Helen Gregory and in 1988 began to lobby for a professional association to represent historians. This resulted in the formation of the Brisbane Historians Institute, now the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). In 1991 he established the UQ Applied History Centre. After retiring from the University in 2001, Fisher became an independent historian and consultant. He published works on Silvester Diggles, Diggles Down Under (2003), as well as Boosting Brisbane (2009), Signs of Separation (2009) and a trilogy of books The Best of Colonial Brisbane (2012), Bygone Brisbane (2016) and Queenslanders: Their Historic Timbered Homes (2016). In 2011 Fisher moved to Brazil. He died on 28 June 2017.