Renate Howe

Renate Thelma Howe (born 1939) is an Australian academic and historian. Her research and writing focuses on Australian social, urban and religious history.

Howe was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1939. She was educated at East Kew State School and University High School, matriculating in 1956. Her tertiary education included a BA from the University of Melbourne and further studies at University of Chicago. During her student years, she was active in the Student Christian Movement and the ALP Club. She also spent two years on the Students' Representative Council. She was awarded a PhD in 1972.

Howe tutored at the University of Melbourne from 1969 to 1974. In 1977 she was appointed to the team to set up distance education at Deakin University where she remained for most of her career.

Works Slums and Suburbs: Social history of urbanization, Oxford University Press, 1982 New Houses for Old: Fifty years of public housing in Victoria 1938-1988, Ministry of Housing and Construction, 1988, All God's Children: A centenary history of the Methodist Homes for Children and the Orana Peace Memorial Homes, co-authored by Shurlee Swain, Acorn Press, 1989 Single Mothers and Their Children: Disposal, punishment and survival in Australia, co-authored by Shurlee Swain, Cambridge University Press, 1995 A Century of Influence: The Australian Student Christian Movement 1896–1996, University of New South Wales Press, 2009 Trendyville: The battle for Australia's inner cities, co-authored by David Nicholas and Graeme Davison, Monash University Publishing, 2014

Personal Howe married Brian Howe in 1962. They had three children.