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2025 Fellows
Supported by the Stokes family
Dr Alexis Bergantz, Senior Lecturer, RMIT University
Whose Pacific? Australia and the South Pacific Commission, 1940s-1990s
Dr Anna Kent, Sessional Academic, Deakin University
Shared histories, shared communities - a history of connections between International Students and the Australian Community
Professor John Morrissey, Professor of Human Geography, University of Galway
The Battle for the Biosphere: The Political Ecology of Judith Wright
Supported by the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust for Research in Australian Literature
Dr Meg Brayshaw, John Rowe Lecturer in Australian Literature, University of Sydney
Rethinking realism in the work of Dymphna Cusack (1902-1981) and Kylie Tennant (1912-1988)
Supported in memory of Professor Ivor Jones for Research in Australian rural, regional or environmental history
Professor Catharine Coleborne, Professor of History, University of Newcastle
My mother's polio: understanding the illness experience of regional Australians in the twentieth century
Supported in memory of Cheng King Law for Research in Asian Studies
Dr Sanjiao Tang, Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Asian and Pacific Studies, Seiki University
30 Years Making of Communist and Nationalist Youth: the CCP's Propaganda Targeting the Chinese Youth during the Maoist Era
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust for Japan Studies
Not awarded in 2025
Offered by the Library
Dr Andrew Carr, Senior Lecturer, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University
Defending Australian Territory
Professor Matthew Spriggs, Honorary Librarian of the Vanuatu and Pacific Collections, National Library of Vanuatu
Documenting the corpus of books in the Indigenous Languages of Vanuatu
Dr Samuel White, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Adelaide
Keeping the Peace of the Realm
2024 Fellows
Supported by the Stokes family
Dr Melanie Duckworth, Associate Professor in English Literature, Østfold University College, Norway
Christobel Mattingley: Life, Worlds, Words
View Fellowship presentation
Dr Nicholas Ferns, ARC DECRA Research Fellow in History, Monash University
International Finance and National Development: Australia and the World Bank
Ms Susan Wyndham, independent researcher
Elizabeth Harrower: A Life of Fiction
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust for Japan Studies
Professor Robin Gerster, Adjunct Research Professor, Monash University
Outside Looking In: Harold S. Williams and the Australian 'Gaijin' in Japan
Dr Jessica O’Leary, Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University
Japanese Women in the Jesuit Mission to Japan (1549-1639)
Supported by the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust for Research in Australian Literature
Dr Bernadette Brennan, independent researcher
Researching Drusilla Modjeska: Feminism, Empire and the Pacific
Offered by the Library
Dr Burcu Cevik-Compiegne, Lecturer in Turkish Studies, Australian National University
Turkish-Australian transnational life writing
Dr Caren Florance, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Centre for Creative & Cultural Research, University of Canberra
A Defining Relationship: The NLA and the CSA Graphic Investigation Workshop, 1984-1997
Dr David McDonald, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Melbourne
From Care to Carcerality: Understanding the Experiences of Forgotten Australians and Child Migrants
2023 Fellows
Supported by past and present members of the National Library Council and Patrons
Dr Eleanor Hogan, independent researcher
Eleanor Witcombe: Her Brilliant Career
View Fellowship presentation: Eleanor Witcombe: Her Brilliant Career
Supported by the Stokes family
Dr Lorinda Cramer, Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University
From Shoddy to Superfine: A Material History of Australian Wool
View Fellowship presentation and blog: Unravelling the history of Australian fashion
Dr Mei-fen Kuo, Lecturer in Contemporary Chinese Culture and History, Macquarie University
Print Culture, The Cold War Legacy and Understanding “Chineseness” in Australia
View Fellowship presentation: Chinese diaspora in Cold War Australia
Dr Adam Sundberg, Associate Professor, Creighton University
Globalizing Exotics: An Environmental History of Ballast Water Management in Australia
View Fellowship presentation and blog: Below the surface
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust for Japan Studies
Dr Tets Kimura, Research Associate in the Creative Arts, Flinders University
The historical and cultural development of Japanese fashion: A chronology from the Edo (17th Century) to the Reiwa (21st Century) eras
Supported by the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust for Research in Australian Literature
Dr Deirdre O'Connell, independent researcher
Pakie's Club: Mapping the Literary Salons of Augusta "Pakie" MacDougall 1875-1945
View Fellowship presentation: Pakie's Club
Offered by the Library
Dr Alice Garner, Research associate, University of Melbourne
Making it count: the many lives of Mavis Robertson (Research for an audio documentary)
View Fellowship presentation and blog: The many lives of Mavis Robertson
Dr Wesley Lim, Lecturer in German Studies, Australian National University
Between Austria and Australia: Staging Hybrid Nationhood in the Photographs of Gertrud Bodenwieser and her Dance Companies
View Fellowship presentation and blog post: Staging nationhood in dance photographs
A/Prof Deane Williams, Associate Professor, Film and Screen Studies, Monash University
A Cultural Biography of Ron Maslyn Williams
View Fellowship presentation and blog: The man behind the camera
2022 Fellows
Supported by the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust for Research in Australian Literature
Professor Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University
Australian theatre artists of the 1930s & 1940s: Investigating the "Ribush Circle"
Supported by the Stokes family
Professor Paul Turnbull, Emeritus Professor, University of Tasmania
Living with the Dead: Cross-Cultural Encounters with Death and Burial in Colonial Australia, 1820-1920
View Fellowship presentation: Living with the Dead
Ms Madelyn Shaw, independent scholar based in the USA
Fabric of War: A Hidden History of the Global Wool Trade
View Fellowship presentation: Fabric of War
Dr Susan Hemer, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide
"Women and Children Last": the establishment of maternal child health services in Papua New Guinea
View Fellowship presentation: Women and Children Last
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust for Japan Studies
Dr Gwyn McClelland, Lecturer in Japanese, University of New England
Trauma and World Heritage on the Gotō Islands: 1856-1899
View Fellowship presentation and blog: Historical trauma, hidden Christianity and world heritage
Dr Ryan Johnson, Tutor, University of Sydney
Triangulating French, Japanese, and Russian Literatures in Twentieth-Century Japan
View Fellowship presentation: From Paris to Dalian
Supported by past and present members of the National Library Council and Patrons
Associate Professor Alison Holland, Academic, Macquarie University
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission: Toward a History
View Fellowship presentation: The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Toward a History
Offered by the Library
Dr Kate Warren, Lecturer, Art History and Curatorship, Australian National University
The role of popular magazines in Australian art history and arts communication
View Fellowship presentation: Cut-out-and-keep
Professor Sue Green, Professor Indigenous Australian Studies, Charles Sturt University
Reverting the Gaze
Dr Annie McCarthy, Assistant Professor Global Studies, University of Canberra
Writers, Poets, Artists and Performers: A New History of Children’s Participation in International Development
View Fellowship presentation: The children shall carry it on
2021 Fellows
Supported by the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust for Research in Australian Literature
Professor Anne Pender, Professor and Kidman Chair in Australian Studies, University of Adelaide
The Colour of Fire: Australian Theatre in China and Chinese Theatre in Australia 1980-2020
View Fellowship presentation: The Colour of Fire
Supported by the Stokes family
Dr Anna Dziedzic, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Hong Kong
Waves and currents: the movement of constitutional texts and ideas across Oceania
View Fellowship presentation and blog: Early Constitutions
Dr André Brett, Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in History, University of Wollongong
Scars in the Country: Railways in Australian and New Zealand Environments, 1850s–1914
View Fellowship presentation: The History of Australian and New Zealand Railways
Professor Melanie Oppenheimer, Professor and Chair of History, Flinders University
Imperial Power Couple: The Political and Personal Lives of Helen and Ronald Munro Ferguson
View Fellowship presentation: Imperial Power Couple
Supported in memory of Averill Edwards
Adjunct Professor Russell McGregor, Adjunct Professor, James Cook University
Bird-lovers: A history of birdwatching passions
View Fellowship presentation: Bird Lovers
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust for Japan Studies
Dr Andrew Levidis, Research Associate Fellow, University of Cambridge
The Dreamworlds of Empire: Manchukuo, Militarism and Transnational Anti-Communism in East Asia, 1945-1975
View Fellowship presentation: The Dreamworlds of Empire
Dr Bill Mihalopoulos, Lecturer in Asian Pacific Studies, University of Central Lancashire
Liberty’s Shackles: Freedom, Consent and Sexual Servitude in Modern Japan
View Fellowship presentation: Consent on Trial
Supported by past and present members of the National Library Council and Patrons
Dr Angelique Stastny, independent researcher based in France
Indigenous activist periodicals shifting politics in the Pacific: anti-colonialism, black power and whiteness
View Fellowship presentation: Publishing the Anti-Colonial Struggle
Offered by the Library
Professor Kate Fullagar, Professor of History, Australian Catholic University
The Lives of Bennelong and other Indigenous negotiators in the Pacific world, 1750-1820
View Fellowship presentation: Revising the Life of Bennelong
Dr Allison Cadzow, Visiting Fellow, Australian National University
Aboriginal Missions and Reserves histories for the National Centre of Biography interactive mapping project
2020 Fellows
Supported by the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust for Research in Australian Literature
Professor Vivien Johnson, Adjunct Professor, Art and Design, University of New South Wales
Writing Papunya: The Making of an Illustrated Vernacular Literature 1974-1991
Supported by the Stokes family
Dr Sharon Crozier-De Rosa, Associate Professor in History, University of Wollongong
Memory-Keepers: Women activists’ strategies to document their history and preserve their own memory
View Fellowship presentation: Memory Keepers
Professor Judith Bennett, Professor of History, University of Otago (NZ)
Constant coconuts, a history of a Pacific commodity
and
Dr Sugata Nandi, Assistant Professor, West Bengal State University (India)
Superior and Subversive? Theosophy, Esotericism and Indian Magic, 1875-1950
View Fellowship presentation: Spiritualist West, Magical Orient
Supported in memory of Averill Edwards
Dr Georgia Pike, Visiting Fellow, Centre for Mental Health Research, Australian National University
'Since Ma’s Gone Mad on Community Singing’: community singing in interwar Australia.
View Fellowship presentation: Community Singing in Interwar Australia
Supported by the Minerals Council of Australia
Professor Jérémie Gilbert, Professor of Human Rights, University of Roehampton (UK)
Indigenous Peoples Cosmovisions, Ecological Stewardship and the Law: Lessons from Australia
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust
Dr Shine Choi, Lecturer, Massey University (NZ)
Understanding North Korea’s Third World Diplomacy through Culture and Art
Supported by the Patrons and Supporters of the Library’s Treasures Gallery Access Program for Curatorial Research
Ms Alisa Bunbury, Grimwade Collection Curator, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne
View Fellowship presentation: The Eastern Isle and Blog post: A melancholy loss.
Offered by the Library
Dr Louise Hamby, Visiting Research Fellow, Australian National University
Experiences at Milingimbi through Axel Poignant’s Photographs
Dr Susan Martin, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Research/Professor of English, La Trobe University
I loved a sunburnt country
2019 Fellows
Supported by the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust for Research in Australian Literature
Dr Ellen Smith, Gender Studies and Australian Literature, Deakin University
Queers in Exile: Sexuality and Ex-Patriotism in Mid-Century Australian Literature
View Fellowship presentation: Queers in Exile
Supported by the Stokes family
Dr Ashley Barnwell, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Melbourne
Family Secrets, National Silences: Intergenerational Memory in Settler Colonial Australia
View Fellowship presentation: Family Secrets, National Silences
Ms Kaz Cooke, author, cartoonist and broadcaster
The History of Advice to Women (‘If You’re a Woman, You’re Doing it Wrong’)
Dr Daniel Midena, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Queensland
A History of Medicine, Christianity and Sorcery: Edwin G. Tscharke (1918-2000) and the Lutheran Medical Mission to New Guinea
View Fellowship presentation: A History of Medicine, Christianity and Sorcery
Supported in memory of Averill Edwards
Associate Professor Andrea Gaynor, Head of History, University of Western Australia
The Wild Next Door: Children’s Engagement with Urban Nature in Australia, 1965-2000
View Fellowship presentation: The Wild Next Door
Supported by the Minerals Council of Australia
Dr Sam Lebovic, Assistant Professor of History, George Mason University
The End of Mass Media: A History of Broadcast Deregulation in Australia, the US and the UK
View Fellowship presentation: The End of Mass Media
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust
Dr Yasuko Claremont, Senior Lecturer, School of Languages and Cultures, University of Sydney
A Critical Analysis of Atomic Bomb Literature
View Fellowship presentation: A Critical Analysis of Atomic Bomb Literature
Associate Professor Kama MacLean, South Asian and World History, University of New South Wales
An Australian Governor in British India: R.G. Casey and the Endgame of Empire
View Fellowship presentation: An Australian Governor in British India
Supported by the Patrons and Supporters of the Library's Treasures Gallery Access Program for Curatorial Research
Dr Elizabeth Moylan, Honorary Associate, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney
Improving Access to Historical Maps to Support Aboriginal Cultural Landscape Research
View Fellowship presentation: Improving Access to Historical Maps to Support Aboriginal Cultural Landscape Research and Blog: Decolonising Historical Maps
Offered by the Library
Dr Alexandra Dellios, Cultural Historian, Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies, Australian National University
Migrant/Ethnic Protest and Activism in Early Multicultural Australia
View Fellowship presentation: Migrant/Ethnic Protest and Activism in Early Multicultural Australia
Professor Elaine Hobby, Researcher and Professor of 17th-Century Studies, Loughborough University
Editing the First Professional Woman Writer in English: Aphra Behn in Australia.
View Fellowship presentation: Australian Evidence of Aphra Behn
2018 Fellows
Supported by Deidre McCann and Kevin McCann AM and the Macquarie Group Foundation
Dr Rebecca Jones, Senior Research Fellow, School of Rural Health, Monash University
View Fellowship presentation: Crazy Weather
Supported by Ryan Stokes
Dr Maggie Tonkin, Senior Lecturer, Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Adelaide
The Creative Process of Meryl Tankard
Read a blog post: NLA Fellowships in 2018
Supported by Library Patrons and Supporters
Professor Lisa Adkins, Professor of Sociology, University of Newcastle and Academy of Finland Distinguished Professor
View Fellowship presentation: Wageless Life in the Great Depression
Supported by past and present members of the National Library Council
Dr Rachel Stevens, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne
Refugees, Relief and revolution: Australians in the Bangladesh Liberation War
View Refugees, Relief and revolution (web archive)
Supported by the Minerals Council of Australia
Professor David Vines, Emeritus Fellow of Economics, Balliol College, Oxford University
Macroeconomic Policymaking in Australia: the Crucial Years
Supported by the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust for Research in Australian Literature
Professor Gillian Russell, Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne
Charles Lamb, Romantic literary cultures, and the Australian Common Reader 1822-1960
Listen to Fellowship presentation: Tyranny of Distance
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust for Research in Japan Studies
Dr Linda Zampol D’Ortia, Religious Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand
Listen to Fellowship presentation: Perceptions of missionary failure
Supported by the Patrons and Supporters of the Library's Treasures Gallery Access Program for Curatorial Research
Associate Professor Lisa Chandler, Associate Professor of Art and Design, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Interrupted Voyage: Visual and Narrative Constructions of Interactions between Colonial Castaways and Indigenous Australians
Listen to Fellowship presentation: Colonial Castaways and Indigenous Hosts
Offered by the Library
Dr Ruth Barraclough, Senior Lecturer, School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University
Red Glamour: Korea’s Early Communist Women
View Fellowship presentation: Red Glamour
Dr Elizabeth Burrows, Program Director, Communications, Griffith University, Queensland
Mediating the Movement: Aboriginal Rights Movement media from origin to online
2017 Fellows
Supported by Deidre McCann and Kevin McCann AM and the Macquarie Group Foundation
Dr Frances Steel, Senior Lecturer in History, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong
Cool Cargoes: Australia-Pacific food trades and transformations in the age of refrigeration
Supported by Ryan Stokes
Dr Shih-Wen Chen, Lecturer in Literary Studies, Deakin University
Children’s Literature and Print Culture in Late Qing and Early Republican China, c.1875-1915
Supported by past and present members of the National Library Council
Professor Ayhan Turhan Aktar, Institute of Social Sciences, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey
In the Eyes of their Foes: Study of Anzac Travellers’ Narratives at Gallipoli in the Australian Press, 1990-2015
Supported by Library Patrons and Supporters
Dr Gillian Arrighi, Senior Lecturer, Creative and Performing Arts, University of Newcastle
Pinafores, Prodigies and Precocities: The Entertaining Child in the Age of Empire
Supported by the Eva Kollsman and Ray Mathew Trust for Research in Australian Literature
Dr Gabrielle Carey, Senior Lecturer, Creative Writing Program, University of Technology Sydney
Ivan Southall and his readers: a study of the reader-writer relationship
Listen to Fellowship presentation: Like a Love Affair
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust for Research in Japan Studies
Dr Michele Monserrati, Visiting Professor in Italian and Comparative Literature, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, USA
Searching for Japan in Contemporary Italy
Listen to Fellowship presentation: Searching for Japan in Contemporary Italy
Supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust for Research in Japan Studies
Dr Masafumi Monden, Research Associate, University of Technology Sydney
The Changing Scape of Shōjo: Examining Girlhood, Aesthetics and Self-hood in Japanese Popular Culture
Listen to Fellowship presentation: A Portrait of Shōjo
Supported by the Library
Mr Paul Diamond, Curator, Mäori, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand
Enhancing Description of Mäori Collections of the National Library of Australia
Dr Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Visiting researcher, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University
On the origin and evolution of a species: Australian scientists in fiction
2016 Fellows
Supported by Deidre McCann and Kevin McCann AM and the Macquarie Group Foundation
Professor Klaus Neumann, Professor, Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology
Becoming Australian: The published autobiographical texts of first-generation immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds
Supported by Ryan Stokes
Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director, National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University
The Volunteer Graduate Scheme and the cultural history of foreign aid
Supported by past and present members of the National Library Council
Professor Lesley Johnson, Emeritus Professor, Griffith University and University of Technology Sydney
Institutions of the Humanities
Supported by Library Patrons and Supporters
Associate Professor Michelle Arrow, Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations, Macquarie University
Private Lives, Public Politics: A new history of the 1970s in Australia
Japan Studies, supported by the Harold S. Williams Trust
Dr Luke Gartlan, School of Art History, University of St Andrews, St Andrews Fife, United Kingdom
Of Other Networks: Photograph Albums and Early Japanese-Australian Cultural Exchanges
Research in Australian Literature, supported by the Eva Kollsman and Ray Mathew Trust
Dr Bridget Vincent, McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, University of Melbourne
Poetry and Public Apology in the Twentieth Century (Judith Wright)
Offered by the Library
Dr Amanda Harris, Research Associate and Operations Manager, PARADISEC, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney
'Corroboree' and Australian Cultural Identity: Public Performance, Reception and Transformation of Australian Aboriginal Music and Dance 1945-70
Mr Michael Piggott, Consultant archivist and researcher; Adjunct Lecturer, Charles Sturt University
Sir John Ferguson's Manuscripts – A study of their provenance
Associate Professor Clinton Fernandes, ADFA, University of NSW Canberra
The bi-partisan consensus in Australian foreign policy, 1983
