Humanities Travelling Fellowships
The Humanities Travelling Fellowships, awarded annually, are one of the Academy’s longest standing awards and were first awarded in 1985. These Fellowships support early career researchers with costs of up to $4,000 to undertake research overseas, including accessing archives and other research materials and connecting with international researchers and networks.
Incorporated into the Humanities Travelling Fellowships is the David Philips Travelling Fellowship. Preference is given to proposals that contribute to the advancement of knowledge of racial, religious or ethnic prejudice. Offered biennially, this Fellowship is made possible thanks to a generous bequest from Mrs Joan Philips. This Fellowship is named after her late son, Dr David Philips, who was a historian and Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. The David Philips Travelling Fellowship will be available next in 2026.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be Citizens or Permanent Residents of Australia who are residing in Australia at the time of nomination.
- Applicants must be in the early stages of their careers, which will be determined, inter alia, by how recently a PhD was conferred. In normal circumstances it should have been conferred no more than five years prior to the closing date for applications.
- Applicants who have received their PhD more than five years ago but who can demonstrate a significant, commensurate period of career interruption (such as maternity or parental leave, carer’s responsibility, illness, unemployment, or non-research employment) may be considered eligible. This includes disruptions caused by COVID-19. A justification for the career interruption must be submitted as part of the proposal.
- Applicants must be working in the Humanities, defined as those discipline areas for which the Academy is responsible: Archaeology; Asian Studies; Classical Studies; English; European Languages and Cultures; History; Indigenous Studies; Linguistics; Philosophy and the History of Ideas; Religion; Cultural and Communication Studies; and The Arts.
- Interdisciplinary work is encouraged, provided it includes a substantial proportion of work in the Humanities.
- Applications will be accepted from independent scholars as well as those working in institutional settings.
- Applicants must be working on a project that requires work outside Australia for its completion or significant advancement.
Criteria
- Applications will be assessed on the rigour and significance of the research, its likely impact within a specialist field, and its potential to engage and/or benefit the wider community.
- Applicants will also need to demonstrate the relevance of the project to their academic career development.
Applications
Applications have closed for 2026 and will reopen in 2027.
Enquiries may be directed to grants@humanities.org.au.
Key dates
- Applications open: 16 February 2026
- Applications close: 29 March 2026
- Assessment period: April – May 2026
- Fellowships announced: late July 2026
Fellowship history
The David Philips Travelling Fellowship, is made possible thanks to a generous bequest from Mrs Joan Philips. This Fellowship is named after her late son, Dr David Philips, who was a historian and Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne.
Offered biennially with a value of $4,000, preference is given to proposals that contribute to the advancement of knowledge of racial, religious or ethnic prejudice. Applications from researchers of South African history are particularly welcome; however, researchers with other areas of geographical interest are also encouraged to apply.
Previous recipients
Since 1985 more than 150 early career researchers have used this grant to access overseas research materials and connect with international research networks.
2026
Dr Ewan S. Coopey, Macquarie University – Ecologies of Empire in Roman Dalmatia
Dr Nat Cutter, University of Melbourne – Reading the Maghreb in eighteenth-Century Scotland
Dr Jessica O’Leary, Monash University – Echoes of women in early colonial Brazil
Dr Georgia Pike-Rowney, Australian National University – At the coalface of repatriation: Italian Australian cross-cultural collaboration to develop research & resources for the public good
Dr Tim Smartt, University of Notre Dame Australia – Beyond blame: A new approach to the morality of what we believe
Dr Tiania Stevens, University of Sydney – Bearing witness: Digitising & preserving Bosnian concentration camp survivor testimonies
Dr Minglei Wang, Flinders University – Projecting influence: Chinese cultural diplomacy in oceania through China Cultural Centres
David Philips Travelling Fellowship
Dr Monica Galassi, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney – Bringing stories home: Tracing Aboriginal histories in the Vatican archives
2025
Dr Katerina Bryant, The University of South Australia –
Narrative, Storytelling and AI: Exploring How Fiction and Media AI Stories Shape Public Perceptions
Dr Roberto Chauca, The University of Sydney – Unearthing Indigenous Voices from Early Modern Amazonia 1560-1561
Dr Charbel El-Khaissi, The Australian National University – Mapping Language Change: Insights from the Middle East
Ms Anna Gero, Griffith University – Climate change adaptation investments in the Pacific Islands – the influence of culture and worldviews
Dr Rhianne Grieve, The Australian National University – In Search of Harmony; socialist engagements with human nature in Britain, 1775 – 1850
Dr Mairi Hill, The University of Melbourne – Women, Language, and Labour in Medieval and Early Modern England
Ms Harriet Hurley, Independent researcher – Traditional Sky Cultures in the Contemporary World: Understanding Māori Culture through the Night Sky
Dr Mohammed Makki, The University of Wollongong – Disrupting Dissent: Cross-Cultural Digital Suppression and the Politics of Misinformation
Dr Jennifer Nicholson, The University of Sydney – Shakespeare’s False Friends: French English, Early Modern England, and the Stage
2024
Dr Lauren Booker, University of Technology Sydney – The imperial networks and colonial agendas of hair sampling from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Dr Matthew Firth, Flinders University – Reimagining the Past: Life-Writing Traditions in Pre-Modern England
Dr Eugenia Flynn, RMIT University – Australian Indigenous Literary Culture Within Global Contexts: A transnational and transdisciplinary study of race, racism and colony
Dr Michael Lazarus, Deakin University – Moral Citizenship and the Origins of the Human Condition: Lessons from Arendt’s Archives
Dr Daniel Leach, Swinburne Online – “Vive la Bretagne libre?” Collaboration, inspiration and ideological exchange between the Breton and Québécois nationalist movements, 1960-1980
Dr Beth Marsden, Australian National University – Childrens School Journeys: Historical Experiences of Mobility for Education
Dr Annie McCarthy, University of Canberra – Crafting Humanitarianism
Dr Rachel Orzech, University of Melbourne – Archival research travel for: An Imagined French Bayreuth: Les Semaines musicales françaises 1933
Dr Lucy Stone, University of Adelaide – Picturing War: Children’s Representations of Lived Experiences of Displacement in the Nazi Era
Dr Sia/Xiaoya Yang, University of Sydney – Book Project: Where Has the Avant-Garde Gone from China?
2022
Dr Levi Durbidge, University of the Sunshine Coast – The impact of virtual exchanges on language learning trajectories: Connecting Caboolture to Kansai
Dr Kristie Flannery, Australian Catholic University – Trafficked: Sex, Servitude, and the Slave-trade in the Pacific
Dr Simon Graham, The University of Sydney – Spying on the World: The Stasi and the International Order
Dr Angeline Leece, La Trobe University – Dental evidence for the dawn of Homo erectus
Dr Deirdre O’Connell, The University of Sydney – From Housing Crisis to Cultural Icon: Tracing the genealogy of the Harlem Rent Party
Dr Michele Seah, The University of Newcastle – The Last Tudor Queens Consort: A Study in Contrasting Queenships
Dr Yu Tao, The University of Western Australia – Chinese Methodist Churches and Diaspora Identities: A Comparative Study of Four Former British Colonies in the East Indian Ocean Rim
Dr Beck Wise, University of Queensland – Public health in the public eye: communicating health and risk to broad publics in the United States and Australia
Dr Shensi Yi, The University o Sydney – Disciplining the Revolution: Comrades, Love, and Gender Politics in Modern China, 1921–37
2021
Dr Jon Burtt, Macquarie University – Circus for Social Change: Social Circus in Action
Dr Chris Cottrell, Monash University – Fieldwork and Residency at Reversible Destiny Lofts, Tokyo, Japan
Dr Jacqueline Dalziell, Macquarie University – Bioengineering Placentas: Feminist Philosophy and Technoscience
Dr Bernard Keo, Monash University – From Public Menace to Michelin Star: The Evolution of Hawker Culture in Malaysia and Singapore
Dr Frederic Kiernan, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music – The Figure of Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) in Czech and German Musical-cultural History
Dr Natalie Lazaroo, University of Queensland – The Community Theatre Project in Singapore: Exploring the Role of Drama in Building Cultural Citizenship and Democracy Among Disadvantaged Young People and Their Communities
Dr Sheng-Hsun Lee, University of Queensland – Communicating COVID-19 in Australia and Taiwan: How Pandemic Narratives are Used and Abused
Dr Jennifer McLaren, Macquarie University – Ireland and the British Caribbean: Engaging with Empire in the Age of Revolutions
Dr N.A.J. Taylor, Deakin University – Cataloguing and Archiving the Atomic Photographers Guild: “The Robert Del Tredici Archiving Initiative
Dr T.J Thomson, Queensland University of Technology – An Ethnographic Study into Casualisation, Centralisation, and Crowdsourced Journalism in a Remote Outback Town
Dr Janet Wade, Macquarie University – In the footsteps of Thomas Ashby and his companions: the destruction (and preservation) of Italy’s ancient Roman roads, 100 years on
Dr Kate Warren, The Australian National University – Writing a popular historiography of art in Australia
David Philips Travelling Fellowship
Dr Tets Kimura, Flinders University
2020
Dr Andre Brett, University of Wollongong — Divide and Rule: Territorial Separation Movements in Colonial Australasia
Dr Shuxia Chen, National Art School and The University of Sydney — Photography as Avant-garde Art: The “Five Ones” Photography Group in 1980s Xiamen, China
Dr Emlyn Dodd, Macquarie University — Knowledge Networks of the Roman and Late Antique Cyclades: A Study on the Dissemination of Agricultural Expertise and Technology
Dr Simon Graham, The University of Sydney — Spying on the World: The Stasi and the International Order
Dr Yishan Huang, The Australian National University and Xiamen University Malaysia — A Study of Sinitic Tones: Pitch and Beyond
Dr Ben Huf, State Library of New South Wales and The University of Sydney — Colonial Liquidity: Making Money in Britain’s Settler Empire
Dr Andrea Jalandoni, Griffith University — Lost and Found Chamorro Cultural Heritage: Using Lidar to Find Archaeological Sites on Guam, Marianas
Dr Helen Ngo, Deakin University — Home and its Refusal: Rethinking Homeliness and Homelessness in the Racialised Body
Dr Keith Rathbone, Macquarie University — The Swimmer of Auschwitz: Alfred Nakache, Empire, and French Identity in the 20th Century
Dr Jason Tuckwell, Western Sydney University — Technological Mediation and Creative Praxis: Technē in Art and Technology
Dr Marama Whyte, The University of Melbourne — The New Girls’ Network: Donna Allen’s Media Report to Women (MRTW)
2019
Dr Alexis Bergantz, RMIT — Across the Coral Sea: Trans-imperial Networks between Australia and New Caledonia, c.1890-1940
Dr Poppy de Souza, Griffith University — Earwitnessing as Method: Slow Listening, Sonic Intimacy and Dwelling in Discomfort
Dr James Fraser, The University of Sydney — The Archaeology of Olive Oil: Investigating Rural Complexity after Urban Collapse
Dr Johanna Hood, The University of New South Wales — Vital Fluid: Evolving Social, Moral and Economic Values of Blood and Cadavers in China
Miss Shimona Kealy, The Australian National University — The Prehistory of Cuscus (Phalangeridae) Distributions and Translocations in the Indo-Pacific
Dr Jarrad Paul, The University of New South Wales — Early Humans in Malaysian Borneo: Faunal Remains and Museum Curation
Dr Laura Rodriguez Castro, Griffith University — Advancing Peace and Conflict Studies from The Ground: Women’s Oral Testimonies and Historical Memory in Colombia
Dr Mia Spizzica, Deakin University — The Italian Connection: Examining Evidence on Italian Civilians Interned in Australia During World War Two
Dr Josh Stenberg, The University of Sydney — Chinese Performance in Late Colonial Dutch East Indies
Dr Clara Stockigt, The University of Adelaide — The Historiography of Australian Aboriginal languages
Dr Yirga Woldeyes, Curtin University — The Politics of Saving Endangered Knowledges in Africa: A case from Ethiopia
Dr Sarah Woodland, Griffith University — Prison Voices: Exploring the Role of Theatre in Transforming Criminal Justice Systems in Settler-Colonial Nations
David Philips Travelling Fellowship
Dr Christina Kenny, The University of New England — Post-Colonial Desires: East African Queer Identities in the Age of Human Rights
2018
Dr Alessandro Antonello, The University of Melbourne — Cultures of Impact: The History of Environmental Assessment in Antarctica, 1970–1991
Dr Alexandra Dellios, The Australian National University — Migration and Multicultural Heritage in Transnational Contexts
Dr Phoebe Garrett, The Australian National University — Structure and Persuasion in Suetonius’ Caesars
Dr Rosemary Hancock, University of Notre Dame Australia — Faithful Democracy: Religion and Democratisation
Dr Elizabeth Ingleson, The University of Sydney — Making Made In China: Race, Politics, and Labor in Sino-American Relations, 1972-1978
Dr Roberta Kwan, Macquarie University — ‘Love thy neighbour’: Shakespeare and Neighbourly Love
Dr Kathleen Lynch, The University of Sydney and Macquarie University — A Philosophical Framework for Cause Prioritization in Conservation
Dr Cat Moir, The University of Sydney — The Politics of Life: Biological Thought and the European Left, 1800-1933
Dr Lintao (Rick) Qi, Monash University — Jin Ping Mei in Japan: Translations, Adaptations, and Circulations
Dr Yichi Zhang, University of Technology Sydney — Scene of Intertwining Modernities: Urban Formation of Chinese Mercantile Ports, 1845-1945
2017
Dr Alix Beeston, United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney — Unfinished: The Misadventures of Literary and Cultural History
Dr Helen Bones, Western Sydney University — Trans-Tasman Educational Publishing Networks and Australian Literary Nation-Building
Dr Claire Cooke, University of Western Australia — Man Made Mission? Race, Prejudice and Masculinity in South Africa During the Early Days of Apartheid
Dr Emilie Dotte-Sarout, Australian National University — A Tale of Polynesian Prehistory: Investigating the History of Polynesian Archaeology, in French Polynesia’s Archival Records, Collections and Personal Histories. Also see the story of what the Humanities Travelling Fellowship enabled Dr Dotte-Sarout to achieve: ANU archaeologist on much-needed support for carer-researchers
Dr Deanne Gannaway, Institute for Learning and Teaching Innovation at the University of Queensland — Tracing the Evolution of Bachelor of Arts Programs from Colonial Roots
Dr Kyle Harvey, University of Melbourne — ‘Nuclear Migrants’: Activism, Mobility, and the Transnational Left
Dr Tristan Moss, University of New South Wales — An Accident of Geography: Australia and the Exploitation and Exploration of Space
Dr Anne Rees, La Trobe University — The Limits of Blood Brotherhood: United States Immigration Restriction and White British Subjects, 1921-1940
Dr Alexandra Robinson, Charles Sturt University — Enemies of the Jesus Movement: Using the Rhetoric of Invective to Examine Confrontational Discourse in Early Christian Literature
Dr Arjun Subrahmanyan, Murdoch University — Democracy and Power in Modern Thailand
Dr Jinghong Zhang, Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University — Comparing Wine and Tea Drinking in China
David Philips Travelling Fellowship
Dr Georgia Wallace-Crabbe, Australian Film, Television and Radio School and the University of Technology Sydney — Memories of the Struggle
2016
Dr William Anderson ― Medieval Landscape Formation in the South Caucasus Highlands: An Artefactual Approach
Dr Kate Ariotti, University of Newcastle― Exploring the Aftermath of Captivity: British and Australian POWs and the Legacy of Imprisonment in Turkey during the First World War
Dr Dean Aszkielowicz, Murdoch University― The United States, Australia and Japan, 1945-1960: Learning to be Allies
Dr Amelia Dale, University of Sydney ― Gendering Multimediality: The Cry and 1750s Women’s Writing
Dr Daniel Edwards ― Training, Production and Distribution Organisations in China’s Documentary Sector
Dr Margaret Hutchison, Australian National University ― Dominion and Imperial Imaginings: A Comparison of Australian and New Zealand First World War Official Art
Dr Katrina Lavers ― Contemporary Circus Creators and Practices
Dr Henry Martin Lloyd, University of Queensland ― Who were the Enlightenment Philosophers?: Towards a Principled Answer
Dr Alys Moody, Macquarie University ― Global Modernists on Modernism
Dr Melanie O’Brien, University of Queensland ― From Discrimination to Death: Understanding Genocide Process and Prevention through History and Human Rights
Dr Christina Petterson, University of Newcastle ― The Adolf Hartmann Papers
Dr Laura Roberts, University of Queensland ― Luce Irigaray and Politics
Dr Anna Teresa Scheer, University of New England― Christoph Schlingensief und die Avantgarde
Dr Natasha Wheatley, University of Sydney ― Living and Dying in International Law: Sovereignty, Time and the International Afterlives of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Dr Jose Antonio Zarandona, Deakin University ― Measuring Destruction of Cultural Property in Iraq and Syria
Dr Yukie Zhu, Australian National University ― The Future of the Past: Cultural Heritage in Urban China
2015
Dr Leslie Barnes, Australian National University ― Narrating Sex and Power: Sexual Exploitation and the Persistence of Colonialism in Vietnam and Cambodia
Dr Samuel Baron, Australian National University ―Rethinking Non-Causal Explanation
Dr Catherine Bishop, Australian Catholic University ―‘World-minded’ Women: International Federation of Business and Professional Women and World Youth Forums: Internationalist Youth Initiatives in the Cold War 1947-55
Dr Iva Glisic, University of Western Australia ― The Futurist Files: Politics, Ideology and Futurism in Russia between 1905 and 1930
Dr Christopher Hale ― The Origins of the Palace of Nestor in Greece: The Ceramic Evidence
Dr Kit Morell, University of Sydney ― Specimen Esto: Setting an Example for Rome
Dr Astrida Neimanis, University of Sydney ― Counterarchives in the Gotland Deep
Dr Gretchen Stolte, Australian National University ― Researching Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Dr Natalia Szablewska, Southern Cross University― A Critical Discourse Analysis of Migration in Cambodia: 2010-2015
Dr Indigo William OAM, Griffith University ― Exploring Cosmopolitanism and Belonging in Transnational Adoption
Dr Genevieve Young-Evans, Macquarie University ― Languages of Respect and Reproach: 5th Century Church Historians and Church Councils
David Philips Travelling Fellowship
Dr Fiona Davis, Australian National University ― Local History and Healing: Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its Lessons for Australia
2014
Dr Kate Bagnall ― Transnational Chinese and White Australia
Dr Tania Colwell, Australian National Unviersity ― Beyond Wonder: Emotions of Encounter in Jean le Long’s Fleurs des histoires d’Orient
Dr James Gourley, Western Sydney University ― Vladimir Nabokov and Thomas Pynchon: Temporal Affinities
Dr Vanessa Hearman, University of Sydney ― Bridging the Gap: Indonesian and Timorese Civil Society Activism During the Late Suharto Regime and Thereafter (1992-2002)
Dr Claire Higgins, University of New South Wales ― Canada’s In-Country Refugee Programme in Latin America: A History that Will Inform Australia’s Current Policy Debate
Dr Mei-Fen Kuo, Swinburne University of Technology ― Enterprising Chinese Australians and the Diaspora Networks, 1890-1949
Dr Agnieska Sobocinska, Monash University ― Concerning the World: Internationalism, Sentimental Humanitarianism and the Cold War
Dr Bridget Vincent, University of Melbourne ― Poetry and Public Apology in the Late Twentieth Century: Adrienne Rich and Geoffrey Hill
Dr Rachel Yuen-Colllingridge, Macquarie University ― Reading Content and Format in the Greek Magical Papyri from Roman Egypt
2013
Dr Amir Ahmadi, Monash University ― Sacrifice and Eschatology in the Zoroastrianism
Dr Christine Barry ― The Artist as Ethnographer: A Discourse Between Art and Anthropology
Dr Matthew Chrulew ― The History and Philosophy of Zoology and Ethology
Dr Christina Clarke, Australian National University ― Metal Vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East from the Late Chalcolithic to the End of the Bronze Age: Local Innovations and Inter-Regional Influences
Dr Catherine Grant, Griffith University ― Pathways to Sustainability: Assessing the Vitality of Music Genres in Contemporary Cambodia
Dr Ruth Morgan, Monash University ― Engineers of Empire: British Engineering Expertise in Asia, Australia and Africa
David Philips Travelling Fellowship
Dr Ben Silverstein, La Trobe University ― Governing Settlers: Race and Labour in Colonial Kenya