Dr Karen Agutter

School of Humanities

College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities


Karen is an historian of migration (1890-1960) with a particular interest in migrant identity and receiving society/migrant relations. She has a special interest in the migrant experience during World War One both within the wider Australian society and as serving members of the first AIF. Karen has also published on Australia's post-World War Two mass migration schemes with a particular focus on the migrant hostel system and on the displaced persons including the so called “hard-core” of unmarried mothers and displaced youth.

Date Position Institution name
2018 - ongoing Visiting Research Fellow University of Adelaide

Date Institution name Country Title
2013 - 2018 University of Adelaide Australia PhD
2003 - 2008 Flinders University Australia PhD

Year Citation
2023 Agutter, K. (2023). Treading Warily into the Lives of Others. Life Writing, 20(1), 45-60.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2023 Agutter, K., & Kevin, C. (2023). From forced to coerced labour: displaced mothers and teen girls in post-World War II Australia. Labor History, 64(3), 256-268.
DOI Scopus2
2021 Persian, J., & Agutter, K. M. (2021). European Post-war Migrants and Indigenous Australians: A History in Fragments. History Australia, 18(1), 112-129.
DOI Scopus4
2019 Agutter, K. M. (2019). Her Majesty’s Newest Subjects: Official attempts to assimilate non-English speaking migrants in post-war Australia. History Australia, 16(3), 480-495.
DOI Scopus3
2018 Kevin, C., & Agutter, K. (2018). Failing 'Abyan', 'Golestan' and 'the Estonian Mother': Refugee women, reproductive coercion and the Australian state. Immigrants & Minorities, 36(2), 87-104.
DOI Scopus8 WoS4
2018 Agutter, K., & Kevin, C. (2018). Lost in translation: managing medicalised motherhood in post-World War Two Australian migrant accommodation centres. Women's History Review, 27(7), 1065-1084.
DOI Scopus4 WoS2
2017 Agutter, K., & Ankeny, R. (2017). Food and the challenge to identity for post-war refugee women in Australia. History of the Family, 22(4), 531-553.
DOI Scopus8 WoS5
2017 Kevin, C., & Agutter, K. (2017). The 'unwanteds' and 'non-compliants': 'unsupported mothers' as 'failures' and agents in Australia’s migrant Holding Centres. The History of the Family, 22(4), 554-574.
DOI Scopus13 WoS10
2016 Agutter, K. (2016). Fated to be orphans: The consequences of Australia's post-war resettlement policy on refugee children. Children Australia, 41(3), 224-231.
DOI Scopus13 WoS10
2016 Agutter, K., & Ankeny, R. (2016). Understanding ethnic residential cluster formation: new perspectives from South Australia’s migrant hostels. Australian Geographer, 47(4), 455-469.
DOI Scopus4 WoS4
2016 Agutter, K., & Ankeny, R. (2016). Unsettling narratives: overcoming prejudices in the Hostel Stories project. Journal of Australian Studies, 40(4), 464-477.
DOI Scopus4 WoS3
2016 Agutter, K. (2016). Assimilation through play: migrant hostel play centres in post-war Australia. International Journal of Play, 5(3), 277-291.
DOI Scopus7
2013 Agutter, K., Bouvet, E., Glenn, D., Leader-Elliott, L., Finnimore, C., Cosmini-Rose, D., & Palaktsoglou, M. (2013). Migrants' belongings: preliminary considerations of Greek and Italian migrants' travel trunks in the post-Second World War period of settlement to South Australia. Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand), Special Issue, 305-324.
2011 Agutter, K. (2011). Belligerent Broken Hill Fighting the Forced Repatriation of Allied Aliens During World War I. History Australia, 8(2), 42-65.
DOI
2010 Agutter, K. M. (2010). Transplanted Identity: The Continuing North/South Divide Experienced by Italian Emigrants. La Questione Meridionale / The Southern Question, 1(1).
2009 Agutter, K. M. (2009). Allied Captives! Italian Immigrants in World War I Australia. Australian Studies, 1(1).
2009 Agutter, K. M. (2009). The Italians in Queensland during World War One. Spunti e Ricerche, 24.
2006 Agutter, K. M. (2006). National Identity Explored, Emigrant Italians in Australia and British Canada in WWI. Flinders journal of history and politics, 23.
- Falconer, E. (Ed.) (2020). Space, Taste and Affect.
DOI

Year Citation
2023 Agutter, K. (2023). STAYING OR DEPARTING: DISPLACED YOUTH IN AUSTRALIA. In R. Balint, J. Damousi, & S. Fitzpatrick (Eds.), When Migrants Fail to Stay: New Histories on Departures and Migration (pp. 187-199). Bloomsbury Publishing (AUS).
DOI
2021 Ankeny, R. A., & Agutter, K. (2021). Food, taste, and memory in Australian migrant hostels. In E. Falconer (Ed.), Space, Taste and Affect: Atmospheres that Shape the Way We Eat (pp. 61-73). London, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis (Routledge).
DOI
2021 Agutter, K., Ankeny, R., & Lacey, L. (2021). Place-making and the Finsbury/Pennington migrant hostel: capturing 45 years of refugee and migrant heritage. In A. Dellios, & E. Heinrich (Eds.), Migrant, Multicultural and Diasporic Heritage: Beyond and Between Borders (pp. 102-118). Abingdon, Oxon; Great Britain: Taylor & Francis (Routledge).
DOI
2020 Agutter, K. M. (2020). Exploring the migrant experience through an examination of letters to The New Australian. In C. Dewhirst, & R. Scully (Eds.), The Transnational Voices of Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press (pp. 151-167). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI
2019 Agutter, K. M., & Kevin, C. (2019). Forgotten Women: Remembering"“Unsupported" Migrant Mothers in Post-World War II Australia. In K. Darian-Smith, & P. Hamilton (Eds.), Remembering Migration: Oral Histories and Heritage in Australia (pp. 107-122). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI Scopus1
2017 Agutter, K. (2017). Foreign-Born Soldiers in the AIF: Australia’s Multinational Fighting Force. In K. Ariotti (Ed.), Australians and the First World War Local-Global Connections and Contexts (pp. 9-25). Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI Scopus3
2016 Agutter, K., & Cosmini-Rose, D. (2016). It was inevitable that they would grow old: the foreseeable crisis of immigrant aged care in South Australia. In D. Cosmini-Rose (Ed.), Ageing Between Cultures: The Experiences and Challenges of Italian Migrants in South Australia (pp. 1-20). United Kingdom: Troubador Publishing.
2015 Agutter, K. (2015). “Italians Deported – Australians Next”: Italians, World War I and the Labour Movement. In P. Deery, & J. Kimber (Eds.), Fighting Against War: Peace Activism in the Twentieth Century (pp. 157-176). Melbourne Australia: Leftbank Press.
2014 Agutter, K. (2014). Sicilians in Australia. In G. Tulloch, K. Agutter, & L. d'Arcangeli (Eds.), Sicily and Scotland: Where Extremes Meet (1 ed., pp. 84-95). United Kingdom: Troubador Publishing.
2014 Agutter, K. (2014). Australian-Italian Relations in World War I. The Italian Consul-General and the Australian Government. In G. Cresciani, & B. Mascitelli (Eds.), Italy and Australia: An Asymmetrical Relationship (1 ed., pp. 115-144). Australia: Connor Court Publishing.
2013 Agutter, K. (2013). Displaced Persons and the 'Continuum of Mobility' in the South Australian Hostel System. In M. Kleinig, & E. Richards (Eds.), On the Wing: Mobility Before and After Emigration to Australia (1 ed., pp. 0 pages). Australia: Anchor Books Australia.
2013 Agutter, K. M. (2013). Displaced Persons and the ‘Continuum of Mobility’ in the South Australian Hostel System. In M. A. Kleinig (Ed.), On the Wing: Mobility before and after Emigration to Australia (Vol. 7, pp. 136-152). NSW: Anchor Books Australia.
2010 Agutter, K. M. (2010). Italians abroad: Critical factors in the development of Italian national identity in migrant communities. In E. Smith (Ed.), Europe's Expansions and Contractions: Proceedings of the XVIIth Biennial Conference of the Australasian Association of European Historians.. Australian Humanities Press.

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