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About Me

I am an oral historian of war and its legacies, with interests in memory, trauma, place, gender, peace, and security. I completed my PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2018, where I taught modern US and international history.

I am currently undertaking an oral history project with women and minority veterans who fought in the US, UK, and Australian militaries since 9/11. I am also co-authoring a history of national security in Australia, and continuing my work on ‘Challenging Anzac‘, I am investigating the experiences of anti-war Australian veterans.  Finally, I am developing a new project with people who sought asylum in Australia from countries affected by climate-related conflict.

Recent Publications

Book:

Return to Vietnam: An Oral History of American and Australian Veterans’ Journeys, Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Articles/Chapters:

Mia Martin Hobbs and Lai Ming Lam, ‘Climate-conflict-displacement dynamics in asylum appeals to Australia from Sudan and South Sudan’, Conflict, Security & Development, published online 26 October 2026. https://doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2026.2749101

 

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘Anti-war veteran activism from Vietnam to the War on Terror’, Challenging Anzac: Stories that don’t fit the legend, eds. Mia Martin Hobbs, Carolyn Holbrook and Joan Beamont (NewSouth, 2026), 189-212.

 

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘Crimes cloaked in Anzac: Australian Special Forces and allegations of atrocities in Afghanistan’, Challenging Anzac: Stories that don’t fit the legend, eds. Mia Martin Hobbs, Carolyn Holbrook and Joan Beaumont (NewSouth, 2026), 212-233.

 

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘”We, to them, are their heroes”: narratives of rescue in white Australian veterans’ memories of the Vietnamese’, Australian Journal of Politics & History (2025). https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.13050 

 

Mia Martin Hobbs, David Lowe, and Carolyn Holbrook, ‘The Rise of National Security in the 1930s: An Australian Case Study’, Journal of Contemporary History 60:1 (2025): 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220094241303883 

 

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘Imperial Nostalgia in Australian Defence Policy in the 21st Century’, Journal of Australian Studies, published online 6 January 2025. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2024.2442414

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘Healing Journeys: Veterans, Trauma, and the Return to Vietnam’ Journal of American History, 110:1 (June 2023): 82-107. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaad094

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘Veteran Reflections: Legacies of War in Vietnam at Peace‘, in The Vietnam War in the Pacific World, eds. Brian Cuddy and Frederik Lovegall, University of North Carolina Press, November 2022.

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘Why soldiers commit war crimes – and what we can do about it‘, Lessons from History: Leading Historians Tackle Australia’s Greatest Challenges, eds. Carolyn Holbrook, David Lowe, and Lyndon Megarrity, New South, July 2022.

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘Calamity or Commodity? Conceptualizing Security in the Nuclear Debate in Fraser’s Australia’, History Australia, (April 2022): https://doi.org/10.1080/14490854.2022.2057339 

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘(Un)naming: Agency, Anonymity, and Ethics in Oral Histories with Veteran-Narrators‘, Oral History Review, 48:1 (2021), online publication 19 February 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/00940798.2021.1885982

Mia Martin Hobbs, ‘“We went and did an Anzac job”: Memory, myth, and the Anzac Digger in Vietnam’, Australian Journal of Politics & History, 64:3 (October 2018): 480-97. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.12512

 

Media Coverage

https://theconversation.com/profiles/mia-martin-hobbs-234698/articles

Social Media

twitter.com/miamhobbs

Country Focus

Expertise by Geography

Australia, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, United States

Expertise by Chronology

20th century, 21st century

Expertise by Topic

Environment, Gender, Military, Sexual Violence