A/Pr Martin Kerby

Biography

Associate Professor Martin Kerby’s research focuses on both educational and historical areas. In the field of education he has investigated links between schools and universities, mentoring, and multiliteracies. His historical focus encompasses school museums as sites for learning, biography, military history, Australian involvement in the Great War, the nature of historical inquiry, and artistic and cultural responses to conflict. Kerby has published six sole-authored research books: 'Sir Philip Gibbs and English Journalism in War and Peace' (2016); 'Nudgee ANZACS' (2015); 'Nudgee: A Life' (2014); 'Undying Echoes: A History of Nudgee College at War' (Kerby, 2002); 'Where Glory Awaits: A History of St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace at War' (Kerby, 2005); and 'Of Great and Good Men: A History of St Joseph’s Nudgee College 1st XV and 1st XIII' (Kerby, 2010).

In 2008 A/P Kerby was awarded a national Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) ‘Remembering Their Service’ Grant (Canberra, ACT). This grant contributed to the construction of one of Australia's largest school based museums which houses a collection of nationally significant material.

In 2008 A/P Kerby was awarded a place and attended the nationally competitive Australian Government National Summer School Scholarship for Teachers of History (Australian National University). He subsequently completed his PhD titled: "Watching from the Wings: The Life of Sir Philip Gibbs 1877 - 1962" at the Australian National University in 2011.

In 2013 A/P Kerby was awarded a Department of Veteran Affairs grant to support commemoration activities and research marking the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War which also contributed to the nationally significant collection of social, cultural, artistic and sporting memorabilia held in the St Joseph's Nudgee College Museum.

During February 2013 A/P Kerby was awarded a competitive Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) to undertake a second PhD to further my study of the methodology of Biography/Life Writing through an investigation of the life of Sir Henry (Harry) Gullett.

In 2015 A/P Kerby was awarded a federal ANZAC Centenary Arts and Culture Fund - Public Grants Program, one of 32 successful applications and the only school/university partnership. This grant augmented a 2014 Queensland ANZAC Centenary Grant. The artistic outputs from the grants were showcased on October 24, 2015 at St Joseph's Nudgee College. This was followed by a grant from the Queensland Government Anzac Centenary Small Grants Program - Spirit of Service for a project exploring the effect of the First World War on the people of Queensland. The outputs from this grant were presented in October, 2017.

A/P Kerby was a 2018 Q ANZAC 100 Fellow at the State Library of Queensland. These competitive Fellowships were awarded for projects that focus on new insights into the Queensland experience of WW1 and its aftermath. His project was titled 'A War Imagined: Queenslanders and the Great War'.

A/P Kerby and Professor Margaret Baguley were awarded a 2019/20 Princeton University Library Research Grant to undertake a five week fully funded residency for their project titled 'Encountering the Wind from the East: The artistic voice of Mary Shepard'.

During 2020 Dr Kerby was one of a team awarded a USQ Learning and Teaching Open Educational Practice (OEP) Grant for the project titled 'Exploring social justice, democracy, human rights and citizenship: Engaging tertiary students through an open history textbook initiative'. He is also the Chief Investigator on a USQ Capacity Building Research Grant titled 'Counter Memorials/Monuments and the Australian Commemorative Landscape'.

In 2021 A/P Kerby led a team who were successful in being awarded a competitive Department of Veterans' Affairs grant under the 'Saluting their Service' program to create a series of digital vignettes to commemorate the service and sacrifice of local defence personnel in the Toowoomba, Springfield and Ipswich region.

At the beginning of 2023 A/P Kerby travelled to Jerusalem to complete an intensive immersion program at Yad Vashem as one of the successful Gandel Holocaust Studies Program for Australian educators awardees.

Kerby is the co-curator of the exhibition ‘The Kangaroo and the Eagle: Allies in War and Peace 1908-2018’ which is currently being shown at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Most recently A/P Kerby and Professor Baguley were awarded funding through the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) for the project titled 'Allora and the Australian Silo Art Trail: Enhancing Community Wellbeing' through the Strenghtening Rural Communities program.

Fields of Research

• 430299. Heritage, archive and museum studies not elsewhere classified