Redmond Barry Fellowship

The Redmond Barry Fellowship offers writers and scholars the opportunity to use collections at the Library and the Archives and Special Collections at the University of Melbourne to research a project in any discipline. This includes early career researchers and graduates.

The successful applicant receives $15,000, access to a desk space in a shared office for 12 months (January – December 2023), access to collections and staff expertise. Australian scholars and writers can apply.

The fellowship is jointly sponsored by the Library and the University of Melbourne, so research should make use of collections at both institutions. Projects that highlight linkages between the collections and promote new insights on the subject, material, or collections are encouraged, as is the production of a digital, creative, or literary work that can be openly shared and published in the University’s Repository.

Read our frequently asked questions and guidelines for more information.

About Redmond Barry

Sir Redmond Barry (1813–1880) was born in Ireland and emigrated to Melbourne in 1839. A practising lawyer, he became a judge of the new Victorian Supreme Court in 1852. The following year, Barry was appointed chairman of the trustees of the Melbourne Public Library (now State Library Victoria). He was the University of Melbourne’s first and longest serving Chancellor from 1853–1880.

Barry was an influential political advocate for the creation of public works throughout Melbourne, had a lifelong interest in philanthropy and contributing to Melbourne’s social and cultural activities, and was instrumental in founding the Library, University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital.

More information

For further information about the fellowship and how to apply, please visit the University of Melbourne website.

Previous recipients

Explore our fellows gallery to learn more about the inspiring projects undertaken by past and present fellows.

• 2022: Dr Lorinda Cramer with the project Wearing wool: Foy & 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 whose project examined Frances Burke's importance in Australia's design and cultural history, bringing her work to a new generation.
• 2018: Dr Jillian Graham whose project worked on a scholarly biography researching the important material on influential Australian composer Margaret Sutherland housed in the State Library Victoria and University of Melbourne collections.
• 2017: Dr Luke Keogh who 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 whose project 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 whose project examines the first 10 years of the Council for Aboriginal Rights (CAR) through the lense of Melbourne University science alumnus Shirley Andrews' rich and revealing letters.
• 2014: Dr Michael Davis whose project explored the feasibility of applying the theories and methods of Professor Greg Dening (1931–2008), a Melbourne-based academic historian, anthropologist and prominent Pacific Studies scholar, to the research and writing of 19th-century Australian Aboriginal/European environmental histories.
• 2013: Marguerita Stephens who researched the topic 'Assistant Protector William Thomas and the Kulin people, 1839–1867: the end of things?' 
• View Redmond Barry Fellows from 2004-2012.