AustLit

'We propose that feminist studies are particularly well-situated to analyse the paradox of what ‘we humans’ want as we gaze into the eyes of planetary catastrophe. The contributions in the special issue evoke tensions between a capitalist imperative to consume, activist calls for resistance, and queer feminist figurations of sex and longing. Asking in turn what we as editors want from the project of feminist environmental humanities, we respond: (1) we want to spark new relations between desire and demand from within environmental crisis; (2) we want a fulsomely feminist environmental humanities; (3) we want to inhabit the difficult and necessary articulation of ‘feminism’ and ‘environment’; (4) we want multiple, situated, perversely scaled and historically awkward genealogies for environmental humanities; and (5) we want ‘to take up the burden of remaking our world’. We contextualise these demands via a series of examples: the drought and bushfires currently gripping the places we are writing from; Betty Grumble’s performance LOVE AND ANGER; an origin story of feminist environmental humanities as told from our particular perspectives; and a 1943 short story, ‘Dry Spell’, by Australian writer Marjorie Barnard. We argue for the feminist potency of holding desire in tension with demand.' (Publication abstract)

'How the Personal became Political presents new research on the events, policy changes and watershed developments in gender and sexuality in Australia in the 1970s. This Special Issue addresses the current political and theoretical significance of the 1970s revolutions, and key questions about the nature of sweeping change. How and why did matters previously considered private and personal, become public and political? What were the key policy shifts? How were protests in the streets connected to legislative reforms? Who were the critical players and what were the dramatic moments? How was resistance to change manifested, and what fears were articulated? How did Australia fit into the broader transnational movements for change? What have been the legacies and what can feminists and gay and lesbian activists today learn from them? Scholars from several disciplines offer fresh insight into this wave of social revolution, and its continuing relevance.' (Michelle Arrow  & Angela Woollacott; Introduction)

'Archives retain a sustained gravitational pull on feminist researchers. We experience them as sites of promise and desire, even as we recognise they are also sites of power and privilege that have long been implicated in acts of violence and erasure. We celebrate the growth in online social and cultural data and the new questions, methods and debates that this proliferation supports, at the same time as we ask what feminist archival research looks like in an era when the metaphor of the archive is invoked to cover almost any kind of memory, collection or accumulation. Importantly, we also acknowledge that our work as feminists is conditioned by the tools – epistemological and technical – available to us at any given point in time. For this reason, contributors here are keen to mark out what may be novel and what is enduring in the ways in which feminist thought and feminist practice frame archives. What follows are some initial provocations along these lines.' (Editorial introduction)

'As we are now well into our third year of editing Australian Feminist Studies, it seems an appropriate time to look at how the journal is travelling. In our first editorial, we talked of our desire to consolidate the journal’s place as a key forum for transformative feminist ideas and analyses, nationally and internationally. With this in mind, one of the most exciting developments we have witnessed is the marked increase in interest in Australian Feminist Studies from readers outside Australia. The latest data we have from our publishers show that in the last year article downloads across Europe and North America combined (46%) exceeded those in Australia (43%). This development follows no doubt from a number of recent initiatives we have undertaken. We have made a concerted effort to encourage international submissions as well as commissioning a number of exciting lead articles from international feminist scholars, something we will continue to do. Our editorial board has also been refreshed to reflect a diverse mix of national and international scholars who are invested in the future of the journal. In addition, we have actively sought to position Australian Feminist Studies at the forefront of feminist debate such the journal is recognised as an open and responsive forum for novel ideas. The inclusion of new sections such as ‘Feminist Debates’ and ‘Research Notes’ has assisted in this regard. We believe that together these initiatives are successfully giving the journal a new profile. The increase in the journal’s impact factor to 0.810 in 2016 up from 0.5 in 2015 is further evidence of this shift and we hope to sustain this going forward.' (Editorial introduction)

Topics in this issue include; becoming a feminist, popular literature and feminism.

'An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles published in the issue on topics including feminism, Germaine Greer's book "The Female Eunuch", and process of canonisation.'