CH Currey Memorial Fellowship

For the writing of Australian history from original sources, preferably making use of the resources of the State Library of NSW

CH Currey Memorial Fellowship

The CH Currey Fellowship is offered annually.

Spines of books

About the Fellowship 

For the writing of Australian history from original sources, preferably making use of the resources of the State Library of New South Wales.

The CH Currey Memorial Fellowship was established in 1974 by the Library Council of New South Wales under the terms of the bequest of the late Dr Charles Herbert Currey, a well-known Australian historian who was conscious of the needs of research workers not supported by grants from institutions such as universities. 

Applicants must demonstrate a record of scholarly research and publication. These awards are for applicants who can demonstrate experience as historical and archival researchers. Applicants must accurately describe which Library collections they propose to use in their project. General descriptions such as ‘Mitchell Library pictorial collections’ are not acceptable.

It is expected that CH Currey Memorial Fellows will:

  • Be experienced researchers who are able to demonstrate a successful record of scholarship, publications and research outcomes.
  • Be able to demonstrate a high-level capacity to promote their work through a variety of media channels in collaboration with the State Library.
  • Agree that the fellowship is a priority during their tenure and that a concentrated period of effort, in the one year tenure, will be made to deliver the fellowship.
  • Actively promote the research undertaken during their tenure.
  • Make a presentation about the project at the conclusion of the fellowship.
  • Ensure any publications, outcomes or media coverage which result from the fellowship prominently acknowledge the support of the State Library of NSW and the fellowship.
  • Contribute to State Library of NSW print and online publications.
  • Submit, to the Mitchell Librarian, a four-page summary of their completed project, copies of any research outcomes (presentations and publications) and a bibliography.
  • Acquit their fellowship in a timely manner.

For more information see:

For more information see:

Applications for Fellowship

Applications for the 2021 Fellowships will open in May 2020

Further information can be found in the frequently asked questions or contact us via email at scholarship@sl.nsw.gov.au

2019

Dr Ian Hoskins, for his project:  Re-imagining the Pacific: exploring white Australian identification with its near neighbours 1870-1970. The project will examine the under-appreciated relationship of European Australia with the Pacific, prior to the independence movements of the 1970s.

2018

Dr Emma Christopher, for her project: Sugar and Slavery: an Australian legacy, which explores how Australian sugar planters inherited Caribbean planter practices and ideologies. A number of Australian sugar planters were funded by Caribbean relatives, this project will utilise the Library’s records to illuminate these relationships. 

2017

Dr Breda Carty, for her project: Changing Social Participation of People with Disabilities in 19th and 20th-Century Australia. This project contributed historical context to contemporary discussions about disability, social inclusion and special education, using the Library's collection to develop an overview of the lives of people with disabilities in nineteenth and twentieth-century Australia. 

2016

Dr Mark Dunn, for his project: Civilised or Savage: the colonial legacy of Robert and Helenus Scott. This project concentrated on the Library's Scott family papers, with particular emphasis on relationships between the brothers and local Aboriginal people, which was not supportive and appallingly violent: a paradox at the heart of much frontier history. 

2015

Dr Gianfranco Cresciani, for his project: Italian Communists in Sydney: their activities, policies and liaison with the Italian and Communist Parties, 1970-1990. Cresciani’s project examined the Federation of Italian Migrants and Families (FIMF), the Italian Communist Party, and its intersection with agencies such as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. The Library holds key papers of the FIMF and this project looked at the history of this organisation, its interaction with local Cold War politics and impact on Sydney cultural life.

 

2014

Dr Christine Jennett, for her project: “Saving the Gurindji”: the story of the Sydney-based support campaign for the Gurindji peoples struggle for equal pay and land rights 1966-75. Jennett’s project used the papers of Dr Hannah Middleton and Roderick Williams, held by the Library, who were both, as an anthropologist and as a field worker respectively, involved in the Gurindji Campaign.

2013

Dr Kyle Harvey, for his project: A History of the Australian Anti-Nuclear Movement, 1945-2000. This project made extensive use of the Library’s substantial archives on this subject to produce a thorough examination of the diverse array of anti-nuclear activity which began to emerge in Australia shortly after the Second World War.

2012

Dr Angela Dunstan, for her project: Celebrity Circuits: the impact and influence of celebrity visitors to nineteenth-century Australia. This project examined key celebrity visits to Australia between 1852 and 1921. It discussed how the art, literature and celebrity ephemera resulting from such visits to Australia created complex and significant circuits of empire that were central to the development of the international conception of Australia, and colonial Australia’s national identity.

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