Smuggled: An Illegal History of Journeys to Australia

Speakers: Ruth Balint and Julie Kalman

Join us online as we welcome authors Ruth Balint and Julie Kalman as they speak on their book Smuggled: An illegal History of Journeys to Australia.

This talk will look at the place of people smuggling in the Shoah illustrating how this is part of a bigger Australian story that nuances and historicises the people smuggler, from the Shoah, to the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and today’s Africa and the Middle East. Ruth and Julie will explore the role the people smuggler has played in our immigration history regarding the conflict and displacement of refugees reaching Australia’ shores. 

Julie Kalman is Associate Professor of History at Monash History. She has published widely on the history of French Jewry in the nineteenth century, and in the post-war period, as well as on the history of migration to Australia. Ruth Balint is Associate Professor of History at the University of New South Wales. She is currently leading a research project with Associate Professor Jan Lanicek on the responses of Jewish refugees in Australia to the plight of their families in Europe during and after the Holocaust.

Image: SJM Collection, Donated by Annette Brett.