Research presentations

A smiling woman with short blonde hair and black-rimmed glasses, wearing a black and white checkered top. She has a nose ring and is outdoors with a blurred background of flowering trees.

Dr Meg Brayshaw

Rethinking realism: Dymphna Cusack and Kylie Tennant

Dr Meg Brayshaw presents her recent Fellowship research into the work of two prominent Australian women writers, Dymphna Cusack and Kylie Tennant.

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A woman with dark hair pulled back smiles at the camera while leaning on a wooden table. She wears a grey blazer over a patterned blouse. Several books and open notebooks are spread across the table in front of her.

Catherine Dwyer

Suzanne Bellamy and the Australian women’s liberation movement

Catherine Dwyer presents her recent Fellowship into the life of women’s liberationist, artist and scholar Suzanne Bellamy.

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A smiling woman with short brown hair sits at a desk, holding open a large, detailed historical map. She wears a floral-patterned blouse and looks directly at the camera..

Dr Margaret Cook

Histories of cyclones in Australia with Dr Margaret Cook

Dr Margaret Cook presents her recent Fellowship research on cyclones, one of the most powerful and devastating natural forces experienced in the Australian climate.

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A woman with brown hair is seated at a table in a well-lit indoor setting, looking directly at the camera. In front of her are some documents and a white electronic device.

Dr Joy McCann

Dr Isobel Bennett and the secrets of Australia's seashores

Dr Joy McCann presented her recent Fellowship research, focusing on Dr Isobel Bennett’s experiences as a trail-blazing female scientist in the mid-20th century.

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A woman wearing a grey jacket stands leaning on a table with papers in a library setting

Fellowship presentation: Early Philippine Palaeontology

Dr Pauline Basilia presented her recent Fellowship research on the contributions of H. Otley Beyer to Philippine Pleistocene research.

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A man with glasses wearing a black button-down shirt in the National Library of Australia's Special Collections Reading Room

Dr Matthew Lamb

The 'archival imagination' of Frank Moorhouse

Dr Matthew Lamb presented his recent Fellowship research on Frank Moorhouse’s ‘archival imagination’, exploring how his methods shaped his work and identity.

Event

A sepia photograph of a man opening a drawer in a caravan

Caravans for the polio immunisation campaign. Health, Australia: photographs collected by the National Library of Australia. Box 57, Health – Polio, nla.cat-vn6185856

Experiences of polio in 1950s Australia

Prof Catharine Coleborne presented her recent Fellowship research, focussed on her discoveries about the health and illness experiences of poliomyelitis (polio) in regional Australia across the 20th century.

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Sepia photograph of four men and a woman having a conversation in business attire.

Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia. NAA: A6180, 28/8/72/59.

International students and the Australian community

Dr Anna Kent discussed her recent Fellowship research focused on Australia's international education history.

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Video

Professor Matthew Spriggs is standing in front wooden bookshelves filled with books. He is wearing glasses, a red short-sleeve shirt patterned with yellow bananas and a black hat.

Prof Matthew Spriggs

Recovering Vanuatu's indigenous literature

Prof Matthew Spriggs talked about his recent Fellowship research focused on the indigenous languages of Vanuatu.

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Video

A black and white image of Chinese students crowded outside a theatre for a meeting in 1949

The Southbound Mobilization Meeting held in Shanghai on June 21st, 1949 at the Tianchan Theatre, nla.cat-vn8490

Revolutionary Youth in China, 1949-1950 with Dr Sanjiao Tang

2025 National Library of Australia Fellow, Dr Sanjiao Tang, discussed his recent Fellowship research focused on the history of the Chinese Communist Party and its new regime.

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