Healthy Citizens? Migrant Identity and Constructions of Health in Post-War Australia

An ongoing Wellcome Trust funded research project investigating the intersections between health and migration during Australia’s mass post-Second World War immigration scheme (1945-1970). Three research strands address medical, migrant and governmental perspectives and bring together source bases including medical literature, oral histories and material culture. A public engagement programme was developed to showcase objects held in Australian museum collections and to share the findings with UK-based audiences. A virtual exhibition, ‘A Full Healthy Life’? Migration and Health in Post-War Australia, was developed and exhibited from 2017-2019. Events included public talks and a mini workshop series with residents of an assisted housing scheme. Two peer-reviewed journal articles have been published and a book manuscript is currently in progress. 

History, Historians and the Immigration Debate

This project originated in my doctoral research at the University of New South Wales (Sydney), which examined the representation of migration history in Australian museums. I became interested in representations of migration history internationally, and particularly in the widespread politicisation of migratory pasts and presents and the paucity of historically-informed perspectives in these debates. Whilst at King’s College London in 2014 I convened the symposium Immigration, Nation and Public History. The event brought together academics, students, community groups and heritage professionals to address the question, ‘where is history in debates about immigration?’ Since then I have worked with Julian M. Simpson on an edited volume which addresses the historian’s role in immigration debates across the world. History, Historians and the Immigration Debate: Going Back to Where We Came From was published by Palgrave Macmillan and launched at the Migration Museum Project in London in February 2019.