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» Eric Fry Labour History Research GrantEric Fry Labour History Research Grant
The Canberra Region Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH) and the ANU Australian Studies Institute (AuSI) are co-sponsors of the Eric Fry Labour History Research Grant.
We invite students doing an honours or postgraduate thesis of at least 10,000 words to apply for a $1,000 grant to do research at the Noel Butlin Archives Centre (NBAC) based at ANU in Canberra.
The NBAC is the largest non-government archives in Australia, and holds an unrivalled collection of trade union and business records, along with the personal papers of many left wing and labour movement activists.
The Eric Fry Labour History Research Grant was established in 2004 to assist promising students with an interest in labour or social history to overcome the financial obstacles to doing research in Canberra. The grant honours the memory of Dr Eric Fry (1921-2007) who, together with Prof Robin Gollan (1917-2007), founded the ASSLH in 1961 and was its first Vice-President and journal editor.
One grant is awarded each year, for a lump sum of $1,000 to assist with fares to Canberra, accommodation and other research expenses. Students who reside in Canberra and the surrounding region are also eligible to apply.
AuSI is proud to sponsor the Eric Fry Labour History Research Grant.
Applications for the Eric Fry Research Grant usually close each year on 31 March.
For details on how to apply, see the Eric Fry Labour History Research Grant standard criteria.
Previous scholarship holders
| Year | Winner | From | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Emily House | Griffith |
Listening to Labour and Migration: North Queensland in the Early 20th Century |
| 2023 | Katie Wood | La Trobe | History of Women in the Australian Metal Trades 1886 – 1951 |
| 2022 | Duncan Hart | UQ | The far-left in Aust 1918-1925 |
| 2021 | Vashti Fox | UWA | Anti-fascist campaigning by CPA after WW2 |
| 2020 | not awarded | ||
| 2019 | Rhys Williams | ANU | British socialist thought on Australia 1880-1914 |
| 2018 | Jack Crawford | Adelaide | 1894 shearers strike in NSW |
| 2017 | Geraldine Fela | ANU | Australian Nursing Federation response to the 1980's AIDS crisis |
| 2016 | not awarded | ||
| 2015 | Andrew DeMayo | Sydney | Visual propaganda by US & Aust IWW 1905-1918 |
| 2014 | Liam Byrne | Melbourne | Labor at War - the Victorian Labor Party 1914-21 |
| 2013 | Brendan McGloin | Melbourne | Factory occupations |
| 2012 | Alexis Vassiley | Perth | Union support for Noonkanbah dispute 1979-80 |
| 2011 | Scott Stephenson | Sydney | The AWU and the NSW Labor Party in the 1920s |
| 2010 | Lian Jenvey | Sydney | Nationalism in the Australian labour movement in WW2 |
| 2009 | not awarded | ||
| 2008 | not awarded | ||
| 2007 | Graham Burke | Canberra | Union policy on Aboriginal issues after WW2 |
| 2006 | not awarded | ||
| 2005 | not awarded | ||
| 2004 | William Newland | Melbourne | Mannix during the Great Depression |
2021 special encouragement awards: Due to the strength of the applicants in 2021, AuSI also sponsored two special encouragement awards:
- Eleanor Foster (ANU): who is researching the movement and mobilisation of Aboriginal material culture from the Hunter into European centres of commerce, exchange, and calculation; and
- Ewan McPherson (ANU): who is investigating the opposition to Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War, and in particular the role of the trade unions in the anti-war movement.
