Copley Bequest Funded Projects

Janet Copley (1926-2017), and her husband Merv, were tireless political activists and campaigners for social justice in Newcastle. Evidence of their contribution can be found in the Merv and Janet Copley Collection of news clippings, diaries and autobiographical writing gifted to the University of Newcastle’s Cultural Collections in 2006. The Copley Bequest Pilot Research funds projects up to $10,000 and is intended to seed research development and linkage opportunities. Projects will utilise University of Newcastle and greater Newcastle region historical archival and visual collections with a view to wider community impact for Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences research.

The Copley Archives contains a wealth of material from WW2 to the late 1970s. They contain many Newcastle-specific material, but also through the numerous travel diaries and observations of Australian social life, culture, environment, economy, and industry.

Since the scheme began in 2019, it has funded 15 projects on important social justice topics through in-depth explorations of archival materials documenting period of intense social change in Newcastle. Projects are conducted with support and expertise from staff in the University Library’s Cultural Collections.

Funded projects:

  • 2025/26: Effie Karageorgos, Penny Buykx, Kate Senior & Ann Hardy: Surveying alcohol use in Newcastle through the Copley collections 
  • 2025/26: Elaine Xu & Belinda Bennett: Public Health Messaging and Visual Narratives of Infectious Diseases in the Hunter from 1950s to 1970s
  • 2025/26: Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan: Tracing the History of the Alliance Française de Newcastle and Its University Connections
  • 2024/25: Prof Catharine Coleborne, Dr Effie Karageorgos, Dr Ann Hardy and A/Prof Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen – Sickness and Health in the Copley Archive: Medical Humanities Approaches to the Collections 
  • 2024/25: Sacha Davis, Julie McIntyre, Jaime Hunt (in PALS) with Industry partners named as applicants: Bridie Moran (Newcastle Museum), Morgan Burgess (Cultural Collections) - German-speakers in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley: migrants, descendants and language legacies, 1849 to the present
  • 2023: Dr Jeannine Baker – Women at NBN-3 Project
  • 2023: Prof Vicky Haskins - Exploring and re-imagining an emerging consciousness of Indigenous rights through the Copley and Masterton Archives 
  • 2022: A/Prof Elizabeth Roberts Pedersen and Dr Kate Davies - Women's Homelessness in Newcastle
  • 2022/2023: Dr David Betts and Dr Justin Ellis - Mapping place and (co)use of public spaces in Newcastle by diverse groups for social organising and cohesion, Newcastle Queer Research Project
  • 2021: Dr Julie McIntyre, Julia Cook & Steven Threadgold - Participation and representation: Media coverage of women’s sport in Newcastle
  • 2021: Keri Glastonbury, Alexandra Lewis, and Caelli Brooker - Unbroken Records: Creating Aging and the Regional Digital Library
  • 2020: Dr Justin Ellis, Dr David Betts, Professor Kate Senior – Policing perversion: Surveilling Queer Newcastle 1950-1980
  • 2020: Kath McPhillips - Researching historical archives related to clergy perpetrated child sexual abuse in the Hunter region
  • 2019: Professor Marguerite Johnson and Dr James Bennett – Marriage Equality in the Hunter Exhibition
  • 2019: Trisha Pender and Tamara Blakemore – (i) Hunter Women’s Financial Literacy and (ii) 16 days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence