Monash researcher wins esteemed history scholarship
A prestigious scholarship supporting archival history has been awarded to PhD candidate Mia Spizzica.
Ms Spizzica received the grant for her exploration of pre-war Italian migrants during the Second World War. Her research focuses on how the migrants were affected by Australia’s internment policies throughout the war. The scholarship was conferred by the National Archives of Australia and the Australian Historical Association and aims to support novel research into Australia’s history of Italian migrants. Ms Spizzica said a vital part of her study was the use of thousands of primary documents, obtained from the National Archives to develop and verify eyewitness accounts.
“The lives of ordinary Italian migrants living in Australia – and Italian diaspora communities in many other areas – were changed forever when Fascist Italy declared war on Britain and France in June 1940,” said Ms Spizzica.
“Almost 5000 Italian men, women and children were interned in Australia as enemy aliens from 1940, with some detained until 1946. The vast majority were later found to have no links to Italian politics but were still considered the enemy because of their origins.”
Ms Spizzica is a PhD candidate supervised by Dr Raffaele Lampugnani of the Italian Cultural Studies program in the School of Languages, Literature and Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Arts. Her research has primarily looked at WW2 history and the physical and mental anguish experienced by migrants of the Italian diaspora. The scholarship, valued at $650, will assist Ms Spizzica in expenses associated with digitising records held in the National Archives’ various locations.
She has previously been awarded the Museum Victoria (MV) 1854 Scholarship for her efforts in collecting data, interviews and material objects for the renowned museum. Ms Spizzica was the first Monash postgraduate student to receive the MV award, winning the scholarship last year.