AustLit

'Welcome to the first issue of the Journal of Australian Studies for 2024. This fresh new collection offers diverting scholarship to bring in the new year—from articles considering narratorial perspective and the reception of literary publications in the United States all the way through to Australian wool and 20th-century art.' (Emily Potter and Brigid Magner :Magic, Manufacturing and Memorialising : Introduction)

'We write this editorial in the wake of the Australian referendum to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. The “no” outcome brings a momentous and emotional end to the year. It signals ongoing turbulence in our national space and a continued deferral of the truth-telling process this country so sorely needs. It suggests, however, that there is meaningful work to be done by scholars of Australian studies, to reckon with the referendum and its many wide-ranging implications.' (Brigid Magner and Emily Potter : Editorial introduction)

'This issue of the Journal of Australian Studies takes us across times, places, knowledges and identities, from Australia’s atomic history to the carceral world of Manus Island, to the profound relationality within Indigenous epistemology, and diverse experiences of cultural marginality and remaking in Australia.' (Editorial introduction)

'Welcome to the first issue of the Journal of Australian Studies for 2023. As you will see, this is a robust first quarter featuring five general articles and a special section relating to the history of illustrated magazines in Australia, edited by Anna Johnston and Paolo Magagnoli from The University of Queensland. This collection of fascinating articles collectively demonstrates the strength of contemporary scholarship that addresses the intersections between media and culture, and the themed section makes clear that illustrated magazines—as complex, multifaceted objects—provide a unique window on Australia’s recent history. We are delighted to showcase these significant interventions in a growing field, which is finally beginning to attract the sustained attention it deserves.' (Emily Potter and Brigid Magner : Editorial introduction)

'In another bumper issue of the Journal of Australian Studies, the expanse of Australian studies takes us from frontier history, crime narrative and visual culture through to questions of free speech, minority cultural identity, “larrikins” in Australian televisual culture, and feral horses. We are also pleased to offer an insight into current polling in the lead-up to the late 2023 referendum on the question of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament inscribed in the Constitution. The picture that emerges reflects the uncertain terrain of the referendum’s outcome, an extremely timely piece given the rancorous debate that surrounds it.' (Brigid Magner and Emily Potter, Editorial introduction)

'Welcome to the final issue of the Journal of Australian Studies for 2022. We are pleased to finish the year with a wide-ranging, robust issue that includes a special section focusing on China–Australia relations—which remains a dynamic and transforming terrain in Australian studies—as well as three general contributions that collectively demonstrate the diversity and strength of contemporary research in and beyond the field.' (Recovery, Collaboration and Oceanic Flows : Brigid Magner and Emily Potter, Introduction)

'Our first general issue for the year once again demonstrates the vitality of Australian studies, exploring topics that range from 1970s feminist activism to postcolonial soundscapes and Cold War intrigues. The work included here continues to broaden thinking on Australian identity, culture and history, and it extends the very live conversation about the place, and its many communities, that we call Australia. This live-ness seems appropriate for our uncertain times in which the horror of international war, the unsettling threats of climate change and, domestically, potential upheavals in our federal political landscape with an upcoming election are playing out amid the uncertainties of the ongoing COVID pandemic and post-lockdown Australia. Within the scholarly field itself, the ongoing assault on the humanities by political leaders represents another source of unease. Yet even in these times of extraordinary pressure, researchers keep producing crucial work.' (Brigid Magner and Emily Potter, Editorial introduction)

'Christos Tsiolkas is regularly acknowledged as one of the most important writers working in Australia—indeed, the world—today. However, his proclivity for the public essay (in venues such as The Monthly), as well as his willingness to speak out on important social and political issues (such as refugees and marriage equality), casts him not only as an important writer, but also as a critical public figure in contemporary Australia. This collection of articles takes the range of Tsiolkas’s works (both fiction and non-fiction, as well as their television and cinematic adaptations) as their impetus, using these as a model to explore the significance of Tsiolkas’s intellectual contribution to Australian public life. As such, these articles work across genre, across theories, across national and international borders, and across disciplines in order to make clear Tsiolkas’s contemporary significance. Building on recent book-length studies on the author, including Andrew McCann’s Christos Tsiolkas and the Fiction of Critique: Politics, Obscenity, Celebrity (2015) and my own Christos Tsiolkas: The Utopian Vision (2017), what these articles hold in common is an assertion that Tsiolkas’s fiction and non-fiction always and everywhere serve a political and social purpose. As I have argued elsewhere, Tsiolkas’s writing ultimately suggests the ways in which we can shape a better future for Australia.' (Jessica Gildersleeve : Introduction: Christos Tsiolkas and Contemporary Australia—The Outsider Artist)

'This issue of the Journal of Australian Studies leads us towards a rich mix of contested, forgotten or untold histories across 19th- and 20th-century Australia. A range of cultural artefacts is central to these histories, from rock art to infant clothing to fences and bollards, as are material practices and labour, both free and unfree. Such a sweep of stories, agents and forces in history reminds us that our understanding of “Australia” is always assembling, and humanities scholars play a critical part in this.' (Emily Potter & Brigid Magner, Assembling Australia: Histories, Materials and Labours, Editorial introduction)

'Western Australia has continued to be seen from without as both necessary and as supplemental: its distinctive place within the national economy, history and psyche has continued to drive a specific and contested set of relations with the state that provides a useful lens upon “Australia” and Australian studies in its larger sense. The status of Australian studies has fluctuated over the last decade but continues to thrive, especially internationally. This special issue explores the potential for a Western Australian perspective to engage with a multifaceted Australian studies. Contributors seek to re-evaluate the analytical framework of Australian studies, interrogating influential assumptions about history and culture. Through narratives of deep time, Asian exchange and cosmopolitanism, truth-telling and extra-colonialism, for example, such research reorients our ideas of “Australia” by rupturing the seemingly inevitable contours of the nation and offering means to re-imagine a future shared civic space. A western orientation offers possibilities for spatially and temporally disrupting the Western linearity that has grounded the modern nation-state. Key principles of this approach must include critical interrogation—rather than celebration—of the entity called Australia, the centrality of Aboriginal perspectives and voices, and the opportunities for creativity and innovation offered by interdisciplinarity.' (Jane Lydon, Reorienting Australian Studies? Remaking Australia from the West : Introduction)

'Our first issue of 2021 brings with it the charge of a new year, a ticking over of the clock from the now infamous 2020. For many, this year is already no easier than the last, and the challenges of the pandemic continue for our global community. Despite this, there is always change in the wind. As we write this editorial, US President Trump’s last days in office signal a potential reset of the cooperative international relations required to address the other global threat somewhat overshadowed by the virus—the unfolding climate crisis—and La Niña has a hold on the weather patterns of the Australian continent, forestalling the catastrophic bushfires we saw last year, bringing with it much-needed rain across parts of the country. This collection of articles includes engagements with both climate crisis and Australian landscapes and regions, and takes us into diverse imaginative and poetic environments through a range of textual and historical explorations of Australian cultural life.' (Emily Potter, Brigid Magner : Land, Sky, Identity and Myth: Making and Unmaking Australian Imaginaries Editorial introduction)

'Our first editorial of 2020 reflected on the profound impact that bushfires would have on Australian society. The devastation of the bushfires has since been dwarfed by a pandemic and a global revolt in response to the murder of George Floyd by police in the United States. The fires and the pandemic each show that our attempts to control nature are as futile as ever, while the Black Lives Matter protests lay bare another profound failure. Each of these events has brought into stark reality the structures of inequality that govern our lives. This issue looks to questions of identity in settler societies, to the history and contemporary legacies of racism embedded within them, and to the alternatives available through multicultural identities, and through popular democracy and protest.' (Editorial introduction)

'Research that relates to Indigenous Australian history has changed considerably since Aboriginal history first emerged as a distinct field in the 1970s. Beginning as an interdisciplinary field, Aboriginal history has since been shaped by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and linguists who have brought to light a diverse range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ historical experiences. Such research has sought to answer eminent anthropologist W. E. H. Stanner’s call to shatter the “Great Australian Silence” that is said to have omitted Indigenous people from national narratives of Australia’s past. Since its inception, Aboriginal history has proved to be a dynamic field. Much early work focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experiences of colonisation—from first encounters with Europeans, to histories of frontier conflict, governmental intervention through protection and assimilation policies, and Indigenous labour histories. The influence of anthropology and linguistics has also ensured that Aboriginal history explores Indigenous worlds, drawing on languages and ethnography to reveal insights into so-called traditional practices concerning caring for Country and land management, diplomacy and law, and ceremonial life.' (Shino Konishi, Introduction)

'This issue of the Journal of Australian Studies goes to print at a time when many Australians are questioning a future of climate disruption. The bushfires that continue to burn have sent smoke particles around the globe, choked cities and regional towns, and led to shock, grief and anger at the scale of destruction to Country. As the debate about climate change pivots to reluctant acceptance and the deep divisions over inaction fade, we will likely remember this period as a kind of shared catastrophe and harbinger of change. We humans are agents of change—individually and collectively—some constructive, others less so. Environment, gender, race: each is reinvented, distorted and manipulated, straitjacketing people and land. In this issue, we look to how gender has been subverted, reimagined and repurposed; how literature and art has given voice to alternate imaginings; and how politics remains central in apology.' (Carolyn Holbrook, James Keating, Julie Kimber , Maggie Nolan  & Tom Rogers  : Editorial introduction)

'This provocative issue of the Journal of Australian Studies offers a range of perspectives that challenge orthodox understandings of some of the key concepts underpinning the broad field of Australian studies scholarship.' (Introduction)

'This issue offers a detailed exploration of the ways in which blind spots can prevent us from seeing the different stories, experiences and representations that constitute who we are as Australians, whether we like it or not.' (Maggie Nola, James Keating, Julie Kimber and Ellen Smith : Historical Blind Spots