Redmond Barry Fellowship

Apply for the Redmond Barry Fellowship to research a project using collections at the Library and the University of Melbourne’s Archives and Special Collections. You can be a creative or researcher in any discipline. We welcome early career creatives, researchers and graduates, as well as established ones.

The fellowship includes:

• $15,000 funding
• desk space at the Library for 12 months
• access to collections and Library staff expertise.

Funding is based on approximately 3 months of work in the Library. This can be either continuous or broken up over the year, and you’ll have access to your office for the full 12 months.

The fellowship is jointly sponsored by the Library and the University of Melbourne, so your research should use the collections at both institutions. We encourage projects that highlight linkages between the collections and promote new insights on the subject or material. We also welcome ideas for digital, creative or literary work that can be shared and published in the university’s repository.

Find out more about the University of Melbourne’s Archives and Special Collections on the University of Melbourne website.

Apply here

About Redmond Barry

Sir Redmond Barry (1813 to 1880) was instrumental in founding State Library Victoria and the University of Melbourne. He was the first chair of the Library Board of Trustees and the University of Melbourne's first and longest-serving Chancellor. Barry was also a practising lawyer and a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Barry had a lifelong interest in philanthropy and was an influential political advocate for the creation of public works throughout Melbourne. He made a significant contribution to Melbourne's social and cultural life.

Previous recipients

Learn more about the inspiring projects undertaken by past and present fellows in our fellows gallery.

• 2024: Dr Bridget Vincent with the project Germaine Greer's Classroom and the Politics of Poetic Form, which explored Germaine Greer's identity as a teacher of literature, and its relationship to her political interventions. 
• 2022: Dr Lorinda Cramer with the project Wearing Wool: Foy and Gibson, Fletcher Jones and a New Dress, which examined the importance of wool in the social, cultural and dress history of twentieth-century Australia.
• 2019: Dr Nanette Carter and Robyn Oswald-Jacobs' project, which examined Frances Burke's importance in Australia's design and cultural history, bringing her work to a new generation.
• 2018: Dr Jillian Graham worked on a scholarly biography researching important material on influential Australian composer Margaret Sutherland, housed in the State Library Victoria and University of Melbourne collections.
• 2017: Dr Luke Keogh researched the Victorian exotic nursery trade within the global network of moving live plants, resulting in a scholarly article and chapter in his book The Wardian Case.
• 2016: Dr Ross Jones re-created the story of tuberculin in Melbourne, using multiple archival and manuscript sources from the collections of both the Library and the University of Melbourne.
• 2015: Professor Jennifer Clark examined the first 10 years of the Council for Aboriginal Rights (CAR) through the lens of Melbourne University science alumnus Shirley Andrews' rich and revealing letters.
• 2014: Dr Michael Davis explored the feasibility of applying Professor Greg Dening's (1931 to 2008) theories and methods. Professor Dening was a Melbourne-based academic historian, anthropologist and prominent Pacific Studies scholar who researched and wrote 19th-century Australian Aboriginal/European environmental histories.
• 2013: Marguerita Stephens, who researched the topic Assistant Protector William Thomas and the Kulin people, 1839 to 1867: the end of things?