The annual fellowship provides an opportunity for scholars to conduct research with the historical collection of children's books available at Australian Catholic University's St Patrick's Campus Library in Melbourne.
The collection includes approximately 5,000 volumes of material dating primarily from the 1840s to the 1990s. The collection is being continually developed to facilitate access to researchers in children's literature. In the early 1990s John and Grace Nolan enrolled in the Children's Literature course at ACU, then located at Chadstone. John and Grace donated some books to the university in the mid/late 90s when a call for book donations was started by their lecturer, Emeritus Professor Margot Hillel OAM.
In 2002, John and Grace moved houses and they had more books that they wanted to donate. It was decided at this point by the university the books John and Grace donated would form a separate collection to be known as The Nolan Historical Children's Literature Collection.
Within the collection there is a discrete Missionary Collection, made up of biographies, autobiographies, children's texts focusing on Christian missionary endeavours and other texts published by missionary organisations such as the LMS, SPCK, RTS and Catholic publishers. It includes major missionary fields not limited to the Pacific, India, China, Africa, and Home Missions published between 1850 and the 1960.
The Nolans have since continued to add to the collection and due to the generous ongoing donations the collection continues to grow.
The Nolan Book Collection is kept in the Library at St Patrick's campus of the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, and can be used within the Library.
Read more about the Nolan collection
The collection is named after former lecturer in children's literature, Mrs Elisabeth (Dinny) Culican and includes approximately 1,500 volumes of material dating primarily from the 1800s to the 1940s.
Mrs Culican first started the collection at the former ACU site, Christ Campus in Chadstone. The collection is now located in the Library at the St Patrick's campus of the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.
The Culican Children's Book Collection is kept in locked glass fronted cabinets but can be used within the Library on exchange of ID.
Read more about the Culican Collection
The fellowship aims to promote high-quality research on the ACU Historical Children's Book Collections that will call attention to their breadth and scholarly potential.
Up to 3 awards of $2,000 are available each year to facilitate a research visit to the Library of St Patrick's Campus Melbourne to use the collection onsite for up to 10 days by either a postgraduate student or an academic working on a project that will benefit from having access to the book collection.
Applications will be considered from candidates in any humanities discipline. Priority will be given to the importance of the project and best use of the historical book collections as judged by a selection panel that receives the applications.
Up to 3 awards of $2,000 annually.
Note - international applicants are required to hold an appropriate visa. ACU is unable help with this process. Please see the Department of Home Affairs website for more information.
There is no additional support for travel and accommodation costs or related insurances.
Associate Professor Kate Douglass, for the proposal 'Clever Girls' and 'Women of Worth': Reading late 19th and early 20th century biographical anthologies for children.
Dr Clarissa Carden, for the proposal Gendered places: urban and rural places in annuals for girls and boys (1900-1950).
Dr Clare Davidson, for the proposal Lost in the bush: Gendered learning and displacement in early Australian children's literature.
Associate Professor Kristine Moruzi, for the proposal Charity in Nineteenth-Century Children’s Fiction.
Kayla Mildren, for the proposal The Schoolchild Visualised: Appearance and Agency in Illustration 1900-1960.
Miranda Francis, for the proposal Where’s Mother? Constructions of motherhood in Australian Children’s Books.
Rachel Anne Buch, for the proposal Building Language, Building Imagination, Building Values.
Dr Timothy Calabria, for the proposal Child Rescue Discourses in Australia, 1867-2007.
Dr Blake Wassell, for the proposal The New Testament and First Nations people in Children’s Books about Christian Mission.
Applicants are asked to submit the following items by 14 August 2024:
Your application will be reviewed by a selection panel consisting of:
Successful applicants will be notified of the outcome no later than 4 September 2024.