Source: State Library of NSW
Tonight the State Library celebrated the 50th anniversary of its prestigious research program by unveiling its largest-ever cohort of Fellows, awarding a total of $186,000 across eight categories.
Highlights include the announcement of the inaugural creative writing fellowship, a new Summer Fellows program and two artists-in-residence.
The 2025 Fellows are:
Inaugural IMAGO Fellow – Dr Sheila Ngoc Pham for ‘Fantasia: On Anne Spencer Parry and Australian fantasy and science fiction in the late 20th century’
Australian Religious History Fellow – Dr Zac Roberts for ‘Changing Representations of Indigenous Peoples in the NSW Jewish Press’
CH Currey Memorial Fellow – Dr Dominic Kelly for ‘From Cold War to Culture War: Quadrant and Australian conservatism’
Nancy Keesing AM Fellow – Dr Clara Sitbon for ‘Piecing the Puzzle: Mapping the literary works of Carter Brown’
Dr AM Hertzberg AO Fellow – Dr Luciano Cardellicchio for ‘From Caravans to Schools, from Airplanes to Houses: Plywood innovation in the post-war construction sector of Australia’
Ross Steele AM Fellow – Dr Ruth Pullin for ‘From Sketchbook to Canvas: Eugene von Guérard’s sketchbooks and the making of pictures’
Merewether Fellow – Dr Nicholas Pitt for ‘Benevolent Cattle? A more-than-human history of the Hawkesbury Benevolent Society and the place of benevolence in the colonial project of NSW’
DS Mitchell Memorial Fellow – Dr Shirleene Robinson AM for ‘Mapping the Contribution, Strategies and Networks of Women in Australia’s First LGBTIQ+ Rights Groups, 1969–1974’
The Library also launched its new Summer Fellows Program with support from the Library Foundation. These nine tertiary students and creative practitioners will receive $1,000 each and the opportunity to acquire essential archival research skills for their future careers:
- Phillip Bartlett: ‘A Possible Narrative of the Macquarie Chest’s Bottom Drawer’
- Ira Friedberg: ‘Bad Times in Red Brick Flats’ Anita Gowers: ‘Pictures Frames in the State Library of NSW Picture Collections‘
- Moon Kerr: ‘George Goodman’s Daguerreotypes of the Lawson Family’
- Annabelle McEwen: ‘How the Body is Defined and Usurped via Visual Mediation’
- Hamish McPherson: ‘Transgender Liberation in NSW 1950–2000’
- Eloise Reddy: ‘1980–90s Cultural Planning and Contemporary Placemaking Discourse’
- Bronwyn Rennex: ‘Ralph Clark and the Birds’
- Suzanne Smith: ‘The Save Our Sons Movement during the Vietnam War’
The reinvigorated artist-in-residence program will see Michelle Arnott create a set of images of the Library and its surrounds using synthetic polymer paint, and Sarah Randall will produce a series of still-life paintings based on letters and diaries held within the Library’s collections.