I am a historian and Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies at the Australian National University, where I teach cultural heritage management and interpretation, and oral history theory and practice.
My research looks at the history of migrant, refugee and ethnic minority communities in Australia. I have published on child migration, multiculturalism and popular culture, migrant accommodation centres, migrant labour and labour activism, and public history and cultural heritage in Australia.
My research is interested in the public history practices of grassroots community groups with a migrant background – and how they approach, interpret and redefine ‘institutional’ or official definitions of ‘heritage’ in the process of making their migration and settlement stories more public. It’s also interested in tracing community engagements with the rhetoric of multiculturalism, and personal histories of welfare activism and social service delivery to community groups.
My first book Histories of Controversy: Bonegilla Migrant Centre was released with MUP in 2017. Subsequent books include: Heritage Making and Migrant Subjects in the Deindustrialising Region of the Latrobe Valley (Cambridge University Press: 2022), which won the 2022 Victorian Community Diversity Award; (with Anoma Pieris, Mirjana Lozanovska, Andrew Saniga, and David Beynon) Immigrant Industry: Building Postwar Australia (Berghahn: 2024); co-edited (with Eureka Henrich) Migrant, Multicultural and Diasporic Heritage: Beyond and Between Borders (Routledge: 2020).
I am founding member of the Australian Migration History Network, and an executive committee member of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies. I remain engaged in oral history projects and teaching, community volunteering, and heritage interpretation efforts.
Please see my ANU profile, ORCiD profile or Google Scholar profile to see more of my research.
You can contact me at alexandra.dellios@anu.edu.au.
Migrant Histories and Heritage Making 