State Library of NSW names 2027 research fellows, from skateboarding to queer history

Indigo Willing, Karen Pack, Jamie Dunk and Paul Irish will work in the library's collections next year.

The State Library of NSW has named the recipients of several of its 2027 history and culture fellowships, part of a $274,000 round across 14 categories now run through its new David Scott Mitchell Institute. The library announced the round on 15 October.

Dr Indigo Willing receives the $25,000 Nancy Keesing AM Fellowship for a history of skateboarding in Australia that ranges from city streets and desert country to Olympic venues, gathering stories and cultural contributions that have been overlooked. The fellowship, set up by Dr Mark Hertzberg AO in memory of the author and poet, supports research into Australian life and culture. Willing follows 2026 fellow Dr Cameo Dalley.

Dr Karen Pack takes the $20,000 CH Currey Memorial Fellowship for Cloaked in Silence, a study of women who loved women in 19th-century Australia. She aims to counter a historical focus on gay men and show how the library's collections can recover queer women's lives.

Dr Jamie Dunk receives the $20,000 Australian Religious History Fellowship for a history of St James' Church and the City of Sydney from 1822 to 2022. Dr Paul Irish holds the $12,000 Merewether Fellowship for The Corroboree That Never Was, about an Aboriginal performance planned for Prince Alfred's 1868 visit and cancelled after an attempt on his life.