Professor Ruth Balint

I teach and write on transnational histories of migration, displacement, refugees and family, with a current focus on the Displaced Persons of postwar Europe. I currently lead two Australian Research Council - funded projects: Russian Immigrants and Anti-Communism in Cold War Australia, 1946-1966, and The Holocaust as an Australian Story, 1933-1954: An Intimate History.

My recent book Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe is published with Cornell University Press (November 2021) https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501760228/destination-elsewhere/#bookTabs=1. It explores the encounters of refugees with the international aid agencies, western migration agents and Allied forces on European soil during the war's aftermath, and the struggle to redefine refugees as migrants to the West. I have also written extensively on the impact of immigration policies on the displaced family, and on women and children.

My other main interest is in Australian migration history. My co-authored book with Julie Kalman, Smuggled: An Illegal History of Journeys to Australia (NewSouth Publishing, 2021), explores the histories of refugees and their people smugglers since the Holocaust: https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/smuggled/ 

My background as a filmmaker has also led me to become increasingly interested in the importance of making Australian history in accessible and creative ways. In 2019, my radio documentary 'Cooking for Assimilation' aired on ABC Radio National's Hindsight program: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-history-listen/cooking-for-assimilation/10595470. It is about the migration of my grandmother as a Jewish refugee to Australia, and more broadly, about the expectations and challenges women migrants faced in postwar Australia.

I am a co-convenor of the UNSW Forced Migration Research Network.