Telling untold stories through a PhD in migrant history

Dr Melissa Afentoulis has achieved a lot in her extensive community services career, from starting out as a social worker to establishing a new migrant resource centre and serving as the chief executive of a women’s health organisation.

But it was when she was semi-retired and decided to embark on a PhD in Arts at the University of Melbourne that she realised her life’s hopes and dreams had “come to fruition”.

“When you’ve been working continuously all of those years, in both enjoyable and challenging roles, you can’t just stop,” Melissa explains. “I look back and think, ‘How did I ever do all these things?’”

The child of working class Greek immigrant parents, Melissa arrived in Brunswick from the island of Lemnos when she was nine years old. When she embarked on an undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne, she was the first member of her family to go to university.

As an adult, Melissa had started returning regularly to Lemnos over the years. She started to notice something interesting: the increasing numbers of younger people who were born in other countries, but returning to the home country of their parents and grandparents.

“Whereas I was born there, and I had an existing connection, [they] were coming back for their holidays and not just loving it, but really making a connection that they had never had before,” she says.

She mentioned her observations to a couple she met at a dinner party, who asked her if she’d thought about undertaking a PhD on the topic. Inspired by their confidence in her, she decided to apply.

“I wrote a proposal. I wasn’t sure if it was on the right track, nor did I really know what starting a PhD involved. Not only was I accepted, but they offered me a scholarship!”

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Research with an academic – and personal – impact

Melissa’s PhD illuminates the experiences of immigrants to Australia in the late 20th century. She used oral history to explore how identity and belonging are shaped through migration, but also shape migration.

She says that her research has not only brought her academic fulfilment, but has had an impact on her own life.

“At a personal level, it was part of the connection I had made back to my homeland myself,” she says. “I wanted to see it through the eyes of others.”

Her research focused on a small, little-known community of migrants. She hopes that her research has created more awareness about Lemnos identity, and drawn parallels between their experiences and those of immigrants more generally, particularly people who migrated to Australia after the war.

“There are three cohorts in my oral history data,” Melissa explains. “There are the first-generation immigrants, then there’s the second generation - the children and grandchildren of that cohort - and there are those who didn’t leave the island. They’re the three groups that interact.”

Her supervisor, Professor Joy Damousi AM also has a Greek background and is an expert in oral history and migration history.

“Our relationship was pretty pragmatic. She would give me the framework and I’d go back to my desk and think ‘what do I do now?’ But she had faith in me. When I reflect, I couldn’t have had a better supervisor.”

A Commonwealth Government scholarship offered financial support for the duration of her PhD, which was important because she was no longer working. The support enabled Melissa to embrace opportunities while researching, including attending several conferences both in Australia and overseas.