Spiros Zournazis Memorial Fellowship
The Spiros Zournazis Memorial Fellowship was funded through a generous bequest to the Australian War Memorial by Spiros Zournazis. As these funds have been expended the Fellowship is no longer available.
The Spiros Zournazis Memorial Fellowship supported research into the Australian War Memorial’s extensive art collection by early career scholars. The Fellowship was open to honours or postgraduate students undertaking a thesis as part of their degree, or those who recently completed a PhD, Mphil or MA. Fellows were free to determine their own course of research provided it focuses primarily on the Memorial’s art collection.
The Fellowship included a four week research residency within the Memorial’s Art Section and full access to the art collection and archive. Fellows were supported by Memorial curators and the Head of Art, and the opportunity to consult with Dr. Mary Zournazi, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of NSW, filmmaker and a specialist in global war and peace studies..
2017 Fellows
Dr. Laura Cook has an interest in wartime and interwar national identity as reflected in material and visual culture relating to Australians and the monarchy. In 2016 she was awarded a PhD in Interdisciplinary and Cross-Cultural Research, at the Australian National University, Canberra which examined Australian perceptions of Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) as the ideal modern man. As an adjunct to this her research at the Memorial will turn the lens of analysis to his father, King George V., and she will examine selected examples of royal portraiture held within the art collection of the Australian War Memorial.
Dr. Jessica Neath is currently working as a research assistant on the Australian Research Council project Representation, Remembrance and the Memorial at Monash University. This visual arts research project concerns the Australian frontier wars and how to represent the magnitude of Indigenous loss and survival in a national memorial. As a fellow Dr Neath’s research at the Australian War Memorial will complement this research and consider with more nuance the visual traditions and complexities of war remembrance in Australia. The focus of Dr Neath’s fellowship will be artworks that depict memorial forms and practices which are connected to war remembrance in Australia.
2015 Fellows
Paris Lettau is a 2014 Honours Graduate in Art History from the University of Melbourne. During his Fellowship Paris explored the Memorial’s art commissions through the official war art scheme, focusing on the First World War and ideas of race in the era of the White Australia Policy.
Dr. Raquel Ormella was awarded a PhD in Visual Arts by the Australian National University in 2013, and her art has been exhibited widely for over a decade. Raquel researched the relationships between humans and the natural environment, focusing on the depiction of animals in the works of First World War official artist H. Septimus Power.
About the art collection
The Memorial holds one of the most extensive and important collections of war related art in the world. The collection is comprised of almost 40,000 artworks in all media dating from the late 19th century to the present day. Thematically, the collection focuses on work that depicts and interprets the Australian experience of war, including its legacies for Australian society. It includes both commissioned and non-commissioned work by many of Australia’s most historically significant artists, including Arthur Streeton, George Lambert, Nora Heysen, Russell Drysdale, Grace Cossington-Smith, Albert Tucker and Sidney Nolan, as well as recent work by contemporary artists such as Megan Cope, Julie Dowling, David Jolly, Ben Quilty, Gabriel Nodea, Khaled Sabsabi, Yhonnie Scarce, and Susan Wanji Wanji. A partial catalogue of the collection is available online.
About Spiros Zournazis
Spiros Zournazis was born in Egypt on 24 April, 1924. Of Greek heritage, Spiros lived most of his early years in Cairo. During the Second World War he served in the Greek Army under British Command in North Africa.
In 1963, with great hope and conviction, he emigrated to Australia with his wife Ioanna Fissentzidis and his young family. Spiros was a dedicated father and humanitarian. Throughout his life he was committed to helping others and supporting education as the cornerstone of civic and public life. He was also a regular visitor to, and long-term Friend of, the Australian War Memorial. This Fellowship perpetuates Spiros’ compassion and generosity toward others, and his belief in the benefits of art and research for the wider community.