Prof Joy Damousi and Prof Sheila Fitzpatrick will present an online lecture entitled Cold War Immigrants: Left, Right and the Orthodox Church, on Thursday 14 October, at 7.00 pm, as part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.

While the history of the Cold War and the history of immigration have both attracted scholarly attention, rarely have these two studies been brought together to explore immigrants to Australia from both the extreme left and right. Drawing on the case studies of Greek (left) and Russian (right) communities this research project will examine unexplored aspects of Cold War and immigration history by bringing insights from both bodies of work. One of these aspects is the role of the Orthodox Church in this context. By examining how the Church aligned itself politically and its role in promoting post-war political agendas this study will also extend new understandings of the role of religion in new immigrant communities.

Sheila Fitzpatrick is a historian of modern Russia and immigration who is a Professor at Australian Catholic University, Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney and Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of the University of Chicago. Her recent books include On Stalin’s Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics (2015), Mischka’s War(2017) and White Russians, Red Peril: A Cold War History of Migration to Australia(2021. The Shortest History of the Soviet Union will be published early in 2022. She is currently writing a book on Soviet and Baltic “displaced persons” after the Second World War.

Joy Damousi is Professor of History and Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Catholic University and Immediate Past Present of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She has published in migration and refugee history and aftermaths of war. Her recent publications include Memory and Migration in the Shadow of War: Australia’s Greek Immigrants After World War Two and the Greek Civil War (Cambridge (2015) and as co-editor, Cambridge World History of Violence (4 volumes, Cambridge 2020). Her next book is The Humanitarians: Child War Refugees and Australian Humanitarianism in a Transnational World, 1919-1975 (forthcoming, Cambridge, 2022).

The event will be simulcasted YouTube Live, Facebook Live, and Twitter Broadcast.
You don't need an account to watch the live broadcast with any of the above services. However, if you want to participate in the Q&A at the end of the seminar you'll need an account with the equivalent service in order to post your question in the comments / chat.