Profile :: Dr Loretta Baldassar
Loretta Baldassar was awarded her PhD in 1995. Her first full-time appointment was Associate Lecturer, Edith Cowan University in 1994. She took up a Lecturer position at the University of Western Australia in 1995 and in 2001 was promoted to Associate Professor. Loretta Baldassar is a pioneer of the transnational approach to migration studies in the Australian context and she has published extensively in this area. Her book, Visits Home: migration experiences between Italy and Australia (2001) published by Melbourne University Press, was awarded the prestigious 2001 NSW Premier's Literary Award, Community Relations Section. The book deals with return visits, a central aspect of her ongoing collaborative research (with Professor Cora Baldock and Dr Raelene Wilding) on Transnational Care-giving, funded by the Australia Research Council. She is currently preparing a co-authored book, Long-Distance Care: transnational migration and aged care based on research with migrants from Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore and Afghani and Iraqi refugees in the transit country Iran.
Loretta is also involved in a new collaborative project (with Nicholas Harney, Richard Bosworth, Susanna Iuliano and Ann Delroy) called Italians in WA: A Cultural History and Archive of migrants and migration. This project is also funded by the Australia Research Council and brings together several Industry partners, including the Italian-Australian Welfare and Cultural Centre, the Battye library, the WA Museum and the Office of Multicultural Interests. There are three main aims of the project: to prepare a comprehensive and accessible book on the history of Italian migration to the State, to build an Italian migration archive at the Battye library and to develop a travelling exhibition of Italian migration stories.
Loretta has been a tireless supporter of Italian migration research and community activities for many years. She has been a member and office bearer of the WA branch of the Italian Australian Women’s Association since 1993. She is also the founder and chair of the Cassamarca Australia Project which coordinates academic staff positions in Italian studies in Australian universities funded by the Cassamarca Foundation, Treviso, Italy.
While her area of specialty is Italian migration studies - together with Ros Pesman (2004), she recently published a book in Italian about Veneto Migration to Australia called, I Veneti in Australia: sfide di storia contemporanea - Loretta is also a keen supporter of migration research more generally. She co-founded the WA Migration Research Network which supports migration researchers across the state. The Network is currently involved in a project funded by the Office of Multicultural Interests to produce a volume to commemorate 175 years of WA settlement. Together with Reg Appleyard, Loretta is writing the introduction for this volume, as well as a chapter on the Italian experience. Loretta is also a WA representative on an Australia Research Council initiative to establish a National Migration Network.
Loretta was responsible for introducing undergraduate units with a migration studies focus in the department of anthropology at UWA. She supervises many postgraduate students working in this field.
Italians in WA: A Cultural History & Archive of Migrants and Migration
This project brings together the interdisciplinary skills and international reputations of experts on Italian migration, peak State Government institutions and international and local Italian communities and institutions to redress a significant absence in the study of Western Australian Italian migration. An accessible history and archive of the Italian presence in WA urban, rural and transnational contexts will be produced. An exhibition will display this heritage to audiences across the State. Fine-grained historical research will provide valuable ethnographic evidence to inform pressing intellectual debates regarding migration, racism, multiculturalism, nationalism and transnationalism.
Project Partners:
- WA Museum - rep: Ann Delroy is an associate investigator on the project
- Italian Australian Welfare and Cultural Centre (WA) rep: Enzo Sirna
- Battye Library rep: Sue Sondalini
- Office of Multicultural Interests rep: Paul Rafferty
- Italian Consulate rep: Vittore Pecchini
- Cassamarca Foundation, Italy rep: Antonella Stelitano and
- UWA:
- Chief investigator: Loretta Baldassar along with:
- UWA "Nick Harney",
- UWA "Richard Bosworth", and
- Dr Susanna Iuliano (a Postdoc).
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