RUTH BALINT’S research in the histories of displacement, migration and refugees centres collaborative partnerships that gives voice to stories of migration and displacement from families and communities. It demonstrates ethical, reciprocal, and co-produced research, by which participants are empowered by academic collaboration and histories are used to rethink present concerns and support positive social change. Smuggled: An Illegal History of Journeys to Australia (NewSouth Publishing, 2021, co-authored by Julie Kalman) is a direct intervention in current political discourse linking people smuggling and refugees, giving people with lived experience of flight to Australia a chance to tell their experiences to an Australian audience. Destination Elsewhere (Cornell, 2021), shows how refugees and storytelling helped shape the creation of international refugee law and the instruments of refugee welfare and humanitarianism that emerged after 1945. Current projects also include The Holocaust as an Australian Story 1933-1954, and Russian Immigrants and Anti-Communism in Cold War Australia, 1946-1966.
Funded by: Funded by Australian Research Council Discovery Grants.