I teach and write on transnational histories of migration, displacement, refugees and family, with a current focus on the Displaced Persons of postwar Europe. My book 'Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe' is forthcoming with Cornell University Press. I am fascinated in particular with how displaced persons navigated the postwar world and new ideas about eligibility as both refugees and immigrants I have written previously on the history of children disabled by war or birth, whose families were broken apart by the postwar immigration policies of western nations. See, for example, 'Children Left Behind: Families, Refugees and Immigration in Postwar Europe', History Workshop Journal 2016, http://hwj.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/08/11/hwj.dbw021.full.pdf?keytype=ref&ijkey=CPIz2ylUF4DOOKM
My other interest is in Australian migration history. I have a forthcoming co-authored book with Julie Kalman called 'Smuggled: An Illegal History of Journeys to Australia' (NewSouth Publishing). I also hold an ARC Discovery grant with Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick from the University of Sydney and Dr Jayne Persian at the University of Southern Queensland, an the subject of Russian and Russian-speaking Jewish Displaced Persons arriving in Australia via the ”China” Route in the Wake of the Second World War'.
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 2014 my radio documentary 'The Somerton Man: A Mystery in Four Acts' aired on Radio National's Hindsight program. In 2019, my radio documentary 'Cooking for Assimilation' about the migration journey of my grandmother as a Jewish refugee to Australia was broadcast on the ABC.