AustLit

'The edition explores the practice of translation as an encounter with other cultures or as a collaborative act; it unravels the cross-disciplinary associations made when taking words into transit; it investigates the journey into the self as one’s own languages interact and pull against each other.' (Publication summary)

'Modern Australia was conceived as a British convict colony, and this relatively recent past steeped in crime and punishment still affects its present. This Coolabah issue explores, across journalism, fiction, film, and poetry the various links that stretch back to the First Fleet, and give shape to the Australian nation-state.' (Publication summary)

'This special themed issue, conceptualised by Philip Hayward and edited by Tiffany Hutton, features a series of papers exploring the connections between various forms of folklore and modernity and the development of contemporary media-lore.' (Periodical summary)

'All the contributors to this memorial issue of Coolabah were close to Serge Liberman and each has written in the way they have felt fit to honour Serge’s legacy as a writer, medical practitioner, intellectual, his profound humanity and understanding of human nature. Serge left behind him what we call “a golden wake” for others to follow. His life and work are an example to us all of passion and humanity. He will not be forgotten.' (Susan Ballyn, Elisa Morera de la Vall Introduction)

'This special double issue of Coolabah, numbers 24&25, was developed from selected presentations at Reimagining Australia: Encounter, Recognition, Responsibility, the International Australian Studies Association (InASA) Conference 2016, hosted by the Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University, and held in Fremantle, Western Australia, on 7-9 December. The double issue addresses the urgent need for Australia to be reimagined as inclusive, conscious of its landscape and contexts, locale, history, myths and memory, amnesia, politics, cultures and futures; reimagined via intense conversations and inter-epistemic dialogue; reimagined through different ways of knowing, belonging and doing. Key agendas, polemics and contestations at stake in this two-part publication project are raised in Tony Birch’s thought-provoking article that serves equally as an introductory essay.'  (Introduction)

'As a practitioner of the short poem for 34 years, I have been and remain on the lookout for other practitioners. By putting on an editorial hat and placing a callout for 1 to 5-line poems via the Australian Poetry e-newsletter, I’ve hearteningly found numerous practitioners. It’s been a rewarding experience for me and now it may be for you, dear reader.' (Peter Bakowski, Introduction)

Issue dedicated to the memory of Dr. Veronica Brady (1929-2015).

'This issue contains some of the research carried out by the members of the POCRIF project, “Postcolonial Crime Fiction: a global window into social realities”, under the auspices of the Centre of Australian Studies at the University of Barcelona. The essays presented in this issue, except for one invited contribution, are the result of funding by the Spanish Ministry of Economy - Ministerio de Economía y Competividad, project FFI2013-45101-P.' (Introduction)

'This issue of Coolabah presents a new collection of essays sprang from a conference jointly organised by the Centre of Australian Studies at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and the Centre for Peace and Social Justice, Southern Cross University, Australia.' (Source: http://www.ub.edu/dpfilsa/coolabah130introduction.pdf )

'This paper is based on the 11th annual Doireann MacDermott public lecture presented at the Universitat de Barcelona in November, 2010. It is a critique of discourses and representations in Australian society, and indeed, embedded in all western societies (and many non-western societies I suspect) which support and reinforce artificial binary oppositions which make up social structures and institutions. Binary oppositions reinforce oppositional power dynamics, making one term positive and the other negative, not recognizing categories in-between. Linguistically, for example, the terms 'Indigenous' and 'non-Indigenous' articulate a false dichotomy between people who, empirically, are not two discrete groups, but rather, multiple groups within each category which interact within and between groups in complex and fluid engagements.

The discourses and representations I discuss in this paper articulate imaginary binary oppositions out of social processes and identities which are, in fact, very similar. However, because these discourses and representations are constructed by different social groups with unequal power relationships they are treated as opposites, one with a higher value than the other. In this paper I am primarily concerned with history and myth, and in two related 'stories', the Lachlan Macquarie story, classified as history because it is primarily written and 'belongs' to the dominant Australian society, and the Maria Locke story, classified as myth because it is primarily oral, and explains the emergence and characteristics of a group of Aboriginal people who claim traditional Aboriginal ownership of a large part of what is today called Sydney.

My argument is that history and myth are not binary opposites, but that the two categories are inter-related and tell similar and different aspects of stories with different emphases and foci. I will support my argument by re-telling and analyzing the Macquarie and the Maria Locke stories and demonstrating that unreflexive acceptance and reproduction of binary thinking reproduces simplistic, one-sided out-comes which support bigotry and prejudice.' Kristina Everett.

'As the guest editor of the present issue of Coolabah (No. 5, 2011), entitled Food for Afterthought, I have had the honour and pleasure of dealing with a series of challenging essays derived from the congress Food for Thought, held from 1st to 5th February 2010 at the University of Barcelona. This event was organised by the Australian Studies Centre of the University of Barcelona, Spain, together with the Centre for Peace and Social Justice of the University of Southern Cross, Lismore, Australia, directed by Dr Susan Ballyn and Dr Baden Offord respectively. Their commitment and work front and backstage both in Barcelona as well as in Australia are responsible for the range and depth of this international conference. Indeed, Food for Thought forms part of a cycle of congresses on Australian Studies that started out commuting between Australia and Spain, but since 2008 have had Barcelona as their one and only venue, without losing their original international and interdisciplinary appeal and objective.' (Editorial introduction)