List of summer scholars

2009

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Kate Robertson

Kate Robertson has just completed the first year of her PhD in Art History and Theory at the University of Sydney.  She received her BA (Hons) in Art History & Theory from the University of Sydney in 2007. Kate’s research topic is “Australian Artists 1890-1914: travel and identity”. She is particularly interested in the interactions between Australian and European artists, the communities they joined and formed, and the extent to which artists both assimilated into and distanced themselves from the European and Australian environments. She seeks to explore how through travel, artists considered, manipulated and invented their ‘Australian-ness”. Some of the key artists she will be researching include those who have been explored, such as Charles Conder, Rupert Bunny, Hugh Ramsay and George Lambert, and those somewhat neglected in recent scholarship, such as John Longstaff, James Quinn, Tudor St George Tucker, Ambrose Patterson, George Coates and the critic J.S. McDonald. She will be using biographical cuttings, periodicals and personal papers.

Nicole Berry

Nicole Berry has just completed the first year of her PhD in History at Adelaide University, where she previously completed a Bachelor of International Studies with History and Politics Honours in 2007. Nicole’s topic is “White Australia, Dead or Alive? The Immigration Legacies of Malcolm Fraser and John Howard”. Her thesis is a history of immigration and Liberal Party policy, comparing how far and how successfully the recent Liberal Governments of Malcolm Fraser and John Howard moved away from the underlying tenets and principles of the old White Australia Policy in light of the reforms of the 1950s and 60s, and eventual abolition of the policy in the early 1970s. Nicole expects her research project to be an addition to the Fraser and Howard legacies, possibly reframing some elements of them, and also hopes to make a significant contribution to the literature on the decline and aftermath of the White Australia Policy, and provide a new source for the development of future immigration policy. She will be using the Library’s collection of Prime Ministerial and Ministerial papers, oral history recordings with key political figures, records of Coalition and ALP caucus/committee meetings and debates, and archived newspapers and election material.

Dave Earl

Dave Earl has recently finished the first year of his PhD in History at the University of Sydney, where he completed a BA (Hons) in 2007. Dave’s research topic is “Youths and Young Girls: Problem teenagers and the adolescence problem in early twentieth century Australia”. At the Library, Dave plans to focus on several interrelated public issues which arose concerning teenagers during his study period. These include fears about, and solutions to, a perceived "venereal epidemic;" growing concerns about "juvenile delinquency;" and what many saw as an alarming rise in "feeblemindedness" and "mental deficiency”. Dave's research will engage with the growing body of international histories of youth and welfare, and draw conceptual insights from gender, cultural and disability histories.  He will be using monographs, periodicals and manuscripts primarily relating to three areas of his thesis: "mental deficiency”, child and youth health initiatives, and venereal disease.

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2008

Summer scholars 2008

Sophie Loy-Wilson

Sophie Loy-Wilson has just completed the first year of her PhD in History at the University of Sydney, where she received her BA (Hons) in History in 2006. Sophie’s research topic is on Sydney and Shanghai as ‘cosmopolitan capitals’ from 1900 to 1940. She will be using personal papers, oral history interviews, advertising ephemera, manuscripts and business periodicals. Sophie reads Mandarin and intends to take advantage of the National Library’s collection of Chinese language sources to enrich the history of Australia’s engagement with Asia. Her aim is to use the collections to understand Australian national identity and the relationships between Australia and Asia.

From man of the British Empire to proud Australian
by Sophie Loy-Wilson
NLA News July 2008 Volume XVIII Number 10

Andrew Thackrah

Andrew Thackrah is a second-year PhD candidate in History at the University of Western Australia. He completed a BA (Hons) and LLB (Hons) at UWA in 2006. Andrew’s topic is the history of neo-liberal thought in Australia. The key question that his research will focus upon is whether there is a distinct Australian neo-liberalism, or whether neo-liberalism is better characterised as a transnational philosophy. Andrew will be using a range of published and unpublished resources, focusing, in particular, on the very substantial archival records of the Institute for Public Affairs.

The ascendancy of neo-liberal think tanks in Australia
by Andrew Thackrah
NLA News July 2008 Volume XVIII Number 10

Rebecca Sanders

Rebecca Sanders is in the first year of her PhD in History at the University of Melbourne, where she completed a BA (Hons) in 2006. Rebecca is researching the history of Churchill Island, in Western Port Bay, Victoria. Her thesis will focus on the way the landscape of Churchill Island has been used and understood by owners and visitors for pleasure, for economic activities, as a home and as a tourist attraction. Rebecca will examine early European activities in Western Port Bay and Churchill Island from 1798 to 1850, based on sailors’ and settlers’ logbooks and diaries, as well as the Library’s rich cartographic and pictorial collections.

Rediscovering the location of Victoria's first colonial garden
by Rebecca Sanders
NLA News July 2008 Volume XVIII Number 10

Alexander Cameron-Smith

Alexander Cameron-Smith is a first year PhD student in History at the University of Sydney and has a BSc and BA (Hons) from Sydney. Alexander is undertaking a biographical study of the tropical health pioneer Sir Raphael Cilento, to consider broader historical trends in public health and colonial administration. As well as Cilento’s medical reforms in Australia, Alexander will explore his work in Malaya and New Guinea, with the League of Nations in the interwar period and thereafter, the United Nations. The Library’s collections include not only Cilento’s personal papers and oral history interviews with him and his medico wife, Lady Phyllis, but also the papers of his colleagues J.H.L. Cumpston, E.W.P. Chinnery, and several other key colonial administrators in the period.

Raphael Cilento: a life in context
by Alexander Cameron-Smith
NLA News July 2008 Volume XVIII Number 10

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2007

Summer scholars 2007

Sarah De Santis

Sarah De Santis has just completed the first year of her PhD in History at La Trobe University. She completed her BA(Hons) in History at La Trobe University in 2005. Ms De Santis’ research topic is "Locating US immigration restrictions in its world context". Her aim while at the National Library is to investigate the connections between Australian Prime Minister William Morris Hughes and several key US policymakers in the months preceding the passing of the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924.

Trans-national links to our national story
by Sarah de Santis
NLA News July 2007 Volume XVII Number 10

Caitlin Murray

Caitlin Murray has just started the second year of her PhD at the University of Melbourne. She completed her BA (Hons) in History at the University of Melbourne in 2002. Ms Murray's research topic is: "Interpreting madness in the primitive mind: medical understandings of Aboriginal insanity in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries". Aboriginal people began to be integrated into the asylum system from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Clinical case records provided a wealth of material for doctors interested in 'Aboriginal insanity' and a number of articles on the subject appeared in medical journals and conference proceedings from the late 1880s through to the 1920s. At the Library Ms Murray is investigating anthropological, scientific and popular influences of the period in order to understand how and why doctors reached conclusions about 'Aboriginal insanity'.

Seeing Civilisation and Savagery: Mapping our History
by Caitlin Murray
NLA News July 2007 Volume XVII Number 10

Nicole Starbuck

Nicole Starbuck is a PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide. She completed her BA (Hons) in History at the University of Adelaide in 2001. Ms Starbuck's research topic is:" The Baudin Expedition's sojourn in colonial Port Jackson and the influence of that experience on the remaining voyage”. The Frenchmen sought respite from their scientific voyage of discovery in the English colony of New South Wales and stayed for five months. During the sojourn they developed a fascination with the colony itself and a heightened awareness of England's jealousy regarding Australian territory and commerce. Ms Starbuck is investigating how the explorers’ English colonial experiences influenced their objectives and attitudes in the context of exploration and French nationalism.

The Baudin Exhibition in Australia, 1800-1803
by Nicole Starbuck
NLA News July 2007 Volume XVII Number 10

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2006

Summer Scholars (From left to right: Dunya Lindsey, Agnieszka Sobocinska, Georgia Shiells and Avan Stallard)

Georgia Shiells

University of Melbourne
Topic: "Testing the borders of whiteness? 'white aliens' in white Australia, 1901-1945".

Georgia Shiells completed a first class honours degree in History at Monash University and commenced her PhD in January 2005 at the University of Melbourne. She has undertaken a number of research projects and has been the recipient of a number of academic awards.. Ms Shiells’s Norman McCann summer scholarship topic was “Testing the borders of whiteness? ‘White Aliens’ in White Australia, 1901-1945”. She described the Library’s collection as critical for her research and the Scholarship as allowing her the time and support to collect and critically analyse sources she would not have been otherwise able to access.

A Different Shade of White
by Georgia Shiells
NLA News August 2006 Volume XVI Number 11

Agnieszka Sobocinska

University of Sydney
Topic: "History of Australian travel to Asia, 1939-2005".

Agnieszka Sobocinska completed a first class honours degree in History at the University of Sydney in 2004 and commenced her PhD in 2005. She is a member of professional associations such as the Australian Historical Association and Asian Studies Association and has been the recipient of several academic awards. Ms Sobocinska’s Norman McCann summer scholarship topic was “History of Australian Travel to Asia, 1939-2005". Ms Sobocinska was particularly interested in how people internalised ideas about Asia and Asians before they left Australia and the effect of these discourses on their travel experiences. Ms Sobocinska’s research took her to all the Library’s special collections but she found the Oral History collection especially rewarding.

The Ultimate Trip
by Agnieszka Sobocinska
NLA News August 2006 Volume XVI Number 11

Dunya Lindsey

Monash University
Topic: "Narratives of young Ireland convictism".

Dunya Lindsey completed a Master of Arts in English with first class honours in 2005 and in 2006 commenced her PhD at Monash University. She has been working as a research assistant for the Henry Handel Richardson Project at Monash University. Ms Lindsey has contributed to various publications including the collected works of nineteenth century Indian author Toru Dutt (OUP, 2005). She is a member of the Association for Commonwealth Literature & Language Studies. Ms Lindsey’s Norman McCann Summer Scholarship research topic was “Narratives of Young Ireland Convictism”. During her time at the Library she examined the letters, diaries and novels of those members of the ‘Young Ireland’ movement transported to Australia to consider how these testimonies depict the relationship between Ireland and Australia and what constitutes their “Irishness”. As well as making heavy use of the Manuscripts collection she found a wealth of information in early publications including newspapers.

A Fanatic Heart
by Dunya Lindsey
NLA News August 2006 Volume XVI Number 11

Avan Stallard

University of Western Australia (first degree), PhD at University of Queensland
Topic: "To chart the evolution of cartographic depictions of the Great Southern Land and Australia from around 1500 to 1800".

Avan Stallard completed a first class honours degree in History at the University of Western Australia and in 2005 commenced a PhD at the University of Queensland. Mr Stallard’s Norman McCann summer scholarship research charted the evolution of cartographic depictions of the Great South Land and Australia from around 1500 to 1800. His research examined how maps were reflective representations of contemporary cosmographic and geographic thinking, heuristic devices which stimulated geographic scholarship and exploration and examples of, independent cartographic scholarship interpreting the results of recent exploration.

The Mis-Craft of Map Makers
by Avan Stallard
NLA News August 2006 Volume XVI Number 11

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2005

Snjezana Cosic

Snjezana Cosic investigated representations of Australia in immigration publicity distributed to potential British migrants between 1945 and 1960. She examined a range of material in the Library’s collections, including posters, pamphlets and newspaper articles from the Pictures, Ephemera and Newspaper Collections respectively. Snjezana is currently completing her Masters degree in Public History at the University of Melbourne and hopes to pursue a career in the cultural heritage field.

Before You Head Off for That Friendly World…
by Snjezana Cosic
NLA News July 2005 Volume XV Number 10

Alex Taylor

Alex Taylor looked at both artists’ studios and the great outdoors as competing venues in the creative process. This subject came out of an examination of Australian artistic self-fashioning in oral history, from 1900 to 1940. Alex made great use of the Hazel de Berg Oral History collection held by the National Library, a collection which has a substantial visual arts focus, listening to interviews with Australian artists such as Ernest Philpot, Stephen Earle and Ernest Buckmaster. Alex works at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square in Melbourne. His research as a Norman McCann Summer Scholar will become part of a forthcoming book.

The Perils of the Interior – Inside the Australian Artist’s Studio
by Alex Taylor
NLA News July 2005 Volume XV Number 10

2004

Summer scholars 2004

Meredith Lake

Meredith Lake explored the dynamics of Christian participation in Australia’s ‘first Aboriginal race riot’, staged in Brisbane, 1971. Upon delving into the manuscript records of the Australian Council of Churches, and the personal papers of its then president and general secretary, she found that the Christian people involved in the demonstration were substantially influenced by overseas events and organisations. Meredith is currently researching the history of Protestant ideas about land in Australia as a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney. Meredith subsequently published a paper based on her research.
Western heritage, Asian destiny: the Australian Council of Churches' activity in Asia, 1950 – 1965. Eras Journal, 7, Nov 2005.

Contextualising Church Involvement In ‘The First Aboriginal Race Riot’
by Meredith Lake
NLA News July 2004 Volume XIV Number 10

Sarah Olive

Sarah Olive considered the function of the menu in Australia, from the literal to the emotional. Using menus from the Manuscript, Pictures and Ephemera Collections, she explored the ability of menus to reflect and record elements of the life of the individual diner, as well as Australia ’s growth as a nation. Sarah is currently working as the Project/Research Officer for the Flinders International Students’ Association.

Eating Your Heart Out: The Emotive Aspects of Menus
by Sarah Olive
NLA News July 2004 Volume XIV Number 10

Rachel Sanderson

Rachel Sanderson focused on the controversy that erupted in 1983 over the construction of a road through the Daintree rainforest at the Cape Tribulation National Park, North Queensland. Rachel listened to an oral history recorded by the National Parks and Wildlife officer responsible for the park, and examined the personal papers of one of the key blockaders and the records of the Australian Conservation Foundation. These sources revealed both the political and practical tensions involved in the passage of a conservation issue from the local to the national and international sphere. Rachel is a PhD candidate at James Cook University, Townsville, and her thesis focuses on the history of scientific visions of the North Queensland rainforest and the connections between science and environmentalism.

The Battle for the Daintree
by Rachel Sanderson
NLA News July 2004 Volume XIV Number 10

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2003

Summer scholars 2003

Joanne Archer

Joanne Archer studied the immigrant experience in South Australia under the Wakefield Immigration Scheme, between 1830 and 1850. She used a variety of sources in her research, including emigrant tracts and pamphlets, diaries and letters, parliamentary papers, and shipping lists and records. Joanne is currently pursuing dual masters degrees in History and Library Science at the University of Maryland in the United States of America, and hopes to pursue a career within a library or archives.

Wakefield ’s Theory of ‘Systematic Colonisation’
by Joanne Archer
NLA News June 2003 Volume XIII Number 9

Sarah Irving

Sarah Irving explored the lost tradition of Australian republicanism in the 1890s. Her research argues that, in contrast to the way in which we understand republicanism today, in the 1890s republicanism was a rich tradition of political life, an ideal of active citizenship and a public sphere of critical debate. She used the Library’s collection of radical newspapers, political pamphlets, poetry, literature and cartoons. Sarah completed her honours degree in History at the University of Sydney, and has accepted a Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake a PhD in History at Cambridge University.

The Unacknowledged Republic: Civic Humanism in the 1890s
by Sarah Irving
NLA News June 2003 Volume XIII Number 9

Ruth Nicholls

Ruth Nicholls researched an oral history collection titled ‘Seven Years On: Interviews with Emerging and Emerged Aboriginal Leaders’. She was interested in the connection between leadership and effective community development. Ruth has an honours degree in Australian Studies at the Australian National University, and intends to undertake a Masters degree in Development Studies in the near future.

The Potentialities of Oral History: The ‘Seven Years On Project’
by Ruth Nicholls
NLA News June 2003 Volume XIII Number 9

Summer Scholar, Ruth Nicholls, Discovers the Value of Oral History
NLA News April 2003 Number 62

2002 – The Inaugural Year

Summer scholars 2003

Andrew Greenwood

Andrew’s research focused on the Australian Musical Albums and their importance for musical and social history. These beautifully illustrated compilations of sheet music were published between 1854 and 1863. Andrew used the Library’s sheet music collections, pictures, maps and newspapers and found the Kenneth Snell manuscript collection on the history of nineteenth-century music publishing especially valuable. Andrew is undertaking doctoral research at the University of Sydney.

Australian Albums: ‘All New - All Colonial’
by Andrew Greenwood
NLA News June 2002 Volume XII Number 9

Joanna Richardson

Joanna described herself as having an interest in addressing the silences in history; looking for voices waiting to be found in private diaries and letters. While at the Library she worked on a little known character, Mrs Deane, who has left a small amount of material in the large manuscript collection of the Faithfull family of pastoral pioneers. Joanna is undertaking doctoral research at the University of Tasmania.

Keeping House in the 1840s
by Joanna Richardson
NLA News June 2002 Volume XII Number 9

Sally Young

Sally studied federal electoral campaigns from the first to the present to understand how politicians and parties promote themselves, how they try to persuade and win voters and how political communication has changed over time. While at the Library Sally used newspapers, the vast collections of political ephemera, pictures and the records of political parties held in the Manuscript Collection. Sally has completed her PhD and is currently teaching at the University of Melbourne.

Political Ephemera and the Hip Pocket
by Sally Young
NLA News June 2002 Volume XII Number 9

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