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Norman McCann Summer Scholarship

Left to right: Nicole Starbuck, Caitlin Murray, Sarah de Santis

The National Library Norman McCann Summer Scholarships, generously funded by the family of former Library Council member the late Norman McCann, support younger scholars undertaking research in Australian history and literature based on the Library’s Collection. The scholarships have been offered since 2002, and each year three scholars are selected from a competitive field of applicants. This year’s scholars are Sarah De Santis, Caitlin Murray and Nicole Starbuck.

  • 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.
  • 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’.
  • 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 three scholarship recipients have six weeks to complete their research, and will each submit a final impression of their findings which will feature as articles in the National Library of Australia News.

Gianoula Burns
Manager
Divisional Support
National Library of Australia