International
Australian Studies Association Biennial Conference
University of Tasmania
Hobart, Australia
3-5 December 2014
This interdisciplinary conference seeks
to explore the multiple relationships that have influenced Australian society
and culture, both historically and contemporaneously, and in both formal and
informal settings, and both within and without Australia. More specifically,
while we are familiar with the Manichean dichotomies emerging from race,
postcolonial and gender studies, have we too quickly foreclosed other kinds of
relations and in doing so concretised unstable categories? This conference, therefore, seeks to reveal
how other relationships influenced and influences our perception of ourselves
and the perception of Australia and Australians (coloniser, settler and
Indigenous) held by others. Pertinent to this is the ongoing debate vis-à-vis
the history of contact and conflict and its legacies between colonists,
settlers and Aborigines. This sometimes disputatious discussion continues to be
couched in terms that afford no purchase to Australia’s burgeoning post World
War II population and their descendants. Whereas at the end of World War II 90
per cent of Australia’s then population of seven million were born in
Australia, of today’s population of 22.55 million over a quarter were born
overseas. Although the United Kingdom continues to be the largest source of
overseas born residents followed by New Zealand, the next largest sources are
China, India then Vietnam. There has also been over the last 4 years in
particular a dramatic rise in asylum seekers from Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri
Lanka. Furthermore, the last two decades have witnessed the extraordinary
growth in international students studying in Australia. There were of course
many earlier non-European arrivals, forced and otherwise, including South Sea
Islanders, Chinese, the so-called Afghan cameleers who were the first Muslim
settlers in Australia, amongst many others. These changing cohorts bespeak of a
series of relationships across multiple levels of varying intensities and
intimacies (friendly, hostile and other) that supersede bluff notions of borders,
margins, and peripheries, and of relationships that change in type and form
over time. This conference seeks to reveal the nuances of these intimacies, and
in doing so, point to their significance.
The conference encourages postgraduates,
early career and senior scholars to present new and innovative work cognate to
our theme. The conference also encourages the participation of postgraduate,
junior and senior scholars from Australian Studies and other relevant Centres
throughout Asia (including China, Japan, Korea), India, North and South
America, Canada and Europe.
We welcome the submission of abstracts
from the following disciplines / fields:
Australian
Studies
Asian
Studies
Cultural
Studies
Ethnography
Heritage
History
Indigenous
Studies
Literature
Media
and Film Studies
Multicultural
Studies
Postcolonial
Studies
Settler
Colonial Studies
Theatre
Abstracts from other disciplines will
also be considered.
Closing date for submission of abstracts
is 30 April 2014.
We intend setting up an on-line abstract
submission form, however, in the mean time any queries (or abstracts) can be
forwarded under this address.
