Redmond Barry Fellowship

Portrait of Sir Redmond Barry seated and wearing long Chancellor's robes and a square academic cap.
Sir Redmond Barry in his Chancellor's robes, 1878, Thomas Foster Chuck. Image courtesy State Library Victoria.

Archives and Special Collections, within Scholarly Services, in partnership with the State Library of Victoria, are proud partners of the Redmond Barry Fellowship. The Redmond Barry Fellowship is named in honour of Sir Redmond Barry, founder of the University of Melbourne and its longest serving Chancellor, and founder of the State Library of Victoria. He was an influential advocate for the creation of public works throughout Melbourne and held a lifelong interest in philanthropy and contributing to Melbourne’s social and cultural activities. The first Fellowship was awarded in 2004 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Sir Redmond Barry’s laying of the foundation stones for both institutions on 3 July 1854.

Writers and scholars wanting to use our collection to research a project in any discipline can apply for the Redmond Barry Fellowship. This includes early career researchers.

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Associate Professor Michelle Smith

Fantasising Australia: Children’s Literature, People, and Place, 1870-2020

Drawing on rare Australian children's fantasy fiction housed at the University of Melbourne Archives and Special Collections and State Library Victoria, this project will investigate how Australians have used imagined worlds in stories for young people to structure ideas about belonging and relationships to place and with people. From the first examples of Australian children’s fantasy fiction, such as Ethel Pedley’s Dot and the Kangaroo (1899), to Ambellin Kwaymullina's The Tribe series (2012-2015), children's texts will provide a way to examine the connections between literature, young people, and changing ideas about national identity from the colonial period to the modern, multicultural era.

Michelle Smith is Associate Professor of English at Monash University, where she researches historical children's literature. She is the author of three books, the most recent of which is Consuming Female Beauty: British Literature and Periodicals, 1840-1914 (Edinburgh UP, 2022). She has also co-edited seven books, including The Edinburgh History of Children's Periodicals (2024, winner of the Children's Literature Association Best Edited Book Award). Michelle has published more than 100 media articles in publications including the UNESCO Courier, Guardian, The Age, and Washington Post, and has regularly been interviewed on radio and television about children's literature.