Research Undertaken by Past Recipients
See the research grant conditions
Tania Connelly a recipient of the Friends Scholarship 2001.
This was the inaugural award. Tania used the DNW Collection to investigate the portrayal of Irish characters in books for children published before 1940 – a research project completed as part of the Master of Library and Information Studies.
Emma Macdonald a recipient of the Friends Scholarship 2002.
Emma’s Master of Library and Information Studies research project was to examine the portrayal of female characters in books from the Dorothy Neal White Collection that have been re-issued and are still available in public libraries, highlight any archaic or negative portrayals, and question whether these books are suitable for continued use.
Caroline Campbell – 2003
Caroline used the DNW Collection to research the usage and design of illustration in junior fiction in New Zealand from 1890-1920, and its impact on the formation of a national identity at a time when New Zealand, while still a colony, was establishing its own seminal persona as separate and distinct from Australia.
In 2004 no award was made but there was some further support given to Caroline Campbell
Andrew Francis – 2005
As part of his research Andrew is looking at the way in which Germans were portrayed in books and magazines for children. He has used publications held in the DNW Collection. Andrew’s PhD thesis is looking at anti-alienism prior to World War 1.
Bea Turner – 2008
Bea’s research was for her MA thesis and she used the DNW Collection to interrogate the Victorian myths of childhood through the representation of the child and the world in fantasy literature and fairy tales of the period. Bea’s thesis is available online: http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/1274/thesis.pdf?sequence=1
Using her research, Bea also wrote:
Notes, books, authors number 11: Keeping “each of the twos in its right place”: the problematic return journey in The cuckoo clock and The tapestry room by Mrs Molesworth.
http://www.dnwfriends.nzl.org/index.php/2015/05/28/nba11/
Anne Siebeck – 2011
Anne was awarded the grant to assist with her PhD research into translated children’s fiction in New Zealand. Part of her research was an analysis of translated fiction held in the DNW Collection and the National Children’s Collection.
Anne’s work is available in:
Translated children’s fiction in New Zealand : history, conditions of production, case studies / Anne Siebeck.
Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang Edition, 2014.
Nicola Daly – 2014
Nicola is a Senior Lecturer in Waikato University’s Faculty of Education. Her area of expertise is linguistics – specifically sociolinguistics, language teacher education, and Māori loanwords in New Zealand English children’s picture books.
Using a set of 54 books from the Dorothy Neal White Collection, Nicola’s research examined the use of labels for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous, the colonized and the colonizer, who in contemporary New Zealand society are known as Māori and Pākehā. Her findings were published in The New review of children’s literature and librarianship:
Daly, N. (2017). Pākehā- Māori: European-Native. Ethnic labeling in the Dorothy Neal White Collection. The New review of children’s literature and librarianship, 23(1), 1-12.
Kay Hancock – 2016
Kay is currently working on her PhD thesis at Victoria University of Wellington, exploring the early years of the Ready to read instructional reading series. Her research grant project will examine New Zealand picture books of the 1940s and 1950s, including: their characteristics, how New Zealand children and lifestyles are portrayed, and the relationship between picture books available to New Zealand children and the books that were published in the 1963 Ready to Read series.
Kay’s research was published by the Friends as part of our Notes, books, authors series:
Notes, books, authors no.14. Dismal, didactic, or delightful?: New Zealand picture books of the 1940s and 1950s.
https://dnwfriends.nzl.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FDNW-NBA-number-14-FINAL-single-pages.pdf
Talia Crockett – 2020
Talia made use of the research grant to support her PhD research at Victoria University of Wellington. Talia’s dissertation examines ethical representations of trauma in young adult Holocaust, postcolonial, and family trauma literature, and it is available online here: