Kate Darian-Smith

David Nichols

Catherine Driscoll

There has been a recent expansion of interest in cultural approaches to rural communities and to the economic and social situation of rurality more broadly. This interest has been particularly prominent in Australia in recent years, spurring the emergence of an interdisciplinary field called 'rural cultural studies'. This collection is framed by a large interdisciplinary research project that is part of that emergence, particularly focused on what the idea of 'cultural sustainability' might mean for understanding experiences of growth, decline, change and heritage in small Australian country towns. However, it extends beyond the initial parameters of that research, bringing together a range of senior and emerging Australian researchers who offer diverse approaches to rural culture. The essays collected here explore the diverse forms that rural cultural studies might take and how these intersect with other disciplinary approaches, offering a uniquely diverse but also careful account of life in country Australia. Yet, in its emphasis on the simultaneous specificity and cross-cultural recognisability of rural communities, this book also outlines a field of inquiry and a set of critical strategies that are more broadly applicable to thinking about the "rural" in the early twenty-first century. This book will be valuable reading for students and academics of Geography, History, Literary Studies, Cultural Studies, Anthropology and Sociology, introducing rural cultural studies as a new dynamic and integrative discipline.

Rethinking Australian Country Towns

Cultural Sustainability in Rural Communities

Sue Turnbull

This path-breaking book extends our knowledge of the social and cultural impacts of television, asking new questions about the ways television’s technologies and programming have been experienced, understood and remembered. Television has served as a companion to the historical events that have unfolded in our everyday lives both on and off the screen, and its presence is intricately bound up in our memories of the past and actions in the present. As this volume demonstrates, the influence of television over individual and family behaviours, national identity and ideas of global citizenship is complex and wide-ranging. Drawing upon recent developments in memory studies, history, media and cultural studies, and with particular reference to Australia, leading scholars explore the histories of television, and how its programs and personalities have been celebrated, recalled with nostalgia or simply forgotten. Topics covered include the pre-figuring of television; memories of the struggle for transmission in remote locations; the transnational experience of television for immigrant communities; the evocation of television programs through spin-off products; televised war reportage and censorship; and the value of ‘unofficial’ television archives such as YouTube. As a whole, these essays offer a striking and original examination of the connections between history, memory and television in today’s world.

Histories, Technologies, Memories

Remembering Television

Julie Willis

Designing Schoolsexplores the close connections between the design of school buildings and educational practices throughout the twentieth century to today. Through international cases studies that span the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australia, this volume examines historical innovations in school architecture and situates these within changing pedagogical ideas about the 'best' ways to educate children. It also investigates the challenges posed by new technologies and the digital age to the design and use of school places. Set around three interlinked themes - school buildings, school spaces and school cultures - this book argues that education is mediated or framed by the spaces in which it takes place, and that those spaces are in turn influenced by cultural, political and social concerns about teaching, learning and the child.

Space, Place and Pedagogy

Designing Schools

Penelope Edmonds

Spanning the late 18th century to the present, this volume explores new directions in imperial and postcolonial histories of conciliation, performance, and conflict between European colonizers and Indigenous peoples in Australia and the Pacific Rim, including Aotearoa New Zealand, Hawaii and the Northwest Pacific Coast. It examines cultural "rituals" and objects; the re-enactments of various events and encounters of exchange, conciliation and diplomacy that occurred on colonial frontiers between non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples; commemorations of historic events; and how the histories of colonial conflict and conciliation are politicized in nation-building and national identities.

Conflict, Performance, and Commemoration in Australia and the Pacific Rim

Conciliation on Colonial Frontiers

Sarah Nuttall

Liz Gunner

Lecturer in the Department of English Sarah Nuttall

Lecturer in Australian Studies at the Sir Robert Menzies Center Kate Darian-Smith

Elizabeth Gunner

Focusing on two white settler societies, South Africa and Australia, this book investigates the meaning of 'the South' as an aesthetic, political geographical and cultural space. This is a landmark in post-colonial theory and criticism.Text, Theory, Space is a landmark in post-colonial criticism and theory. Focusing on two white settler societies, South Africa and Australia, the contributors investigate the meaning of 'the South' as an aesthetic, political, geographical and cultural space.Drawing upon a wide range of disciplines which include literature, history, urban and cultural geography, politics and anthropology, the contributors examine crucial issues including:* defining what 'the South' encompasses* investigating ideas of space, history, land and landscape* claiming, naming and possessing land* national and personal boundaries* questions of race, gender and nationalism

Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia

Text, Theory, Space

Paula Hamilton

This book provides the first comprehensive study of diverse migrant memories and what they mean for Australia in the twenty-first century. Drawing on rich case studies, it captures the changing political and cultural dimensions of migration memories as they are negotiated and commemorated by individuals, communities and the nation. Remembering Migration is divided into two sections, the first on oral histories and the second examining the complexity of migrant heritage, and the sources and genres of memory writing. The focused and thematic analysis in the book explores how these histories are re-remembered in private and public spaces, including museum exhibitions, heritage sites and the media. Written by leading and emerging scholars, the collected essays explore how memories of global migration across generations contribute to the ever-changing social and cultural fabric of Australia and its place in the world.

Oral Histories and Heritage in Australia

Remembering Migration

What really happened on the Australian home front during the Second World War? For the people of Melbourne these were years of social dislocation and increased government interference in all aspects of daily life. On the Home Front is the story of their work, leisure, relationships and their fears—for by 1942 the city was pitted with air raid trenches, and in the half-light of the brownout Melburnians awaited a Japanese invasion. As women left the home to replace men in factories and offices, the traditional roles of mothers and wives were challenged. The presence of thousands of American soldiers in Melbourne raised new questions about Australian nationalism and identity, and the 'carnival spirit' of many on the home front created anxiety about the issues of drunkenness, gambling and sexuality. Kate Darian-Smith's classic and evocative study of Melbourne in wartime draws upon the memories of men and women who lived through those turbulent years when society grappled with the tensions between a restrictive government and new opportunities for social and sexual freedoms.

On the Home Front

Text, Theory, Space is a landmark in post-colonial criticism and theory. Focusing on two white settler societies, South Africa and Australia, the contributors investigate the meaning of 'the South' as an aesthetic, political, geographical and cultural space. Drawing upon a wide range of disciplines which include literature, history, urban and cultural geography, politics and anthropology, the contributors examine crucial issues including: * defining what 'the South' encompasses * investigating ideas of space, history, land and landscape * claiming, naming and possessing land * national and personal boundaries * questions of race, gender and nationalism

Designing Schools explores the close connections between the design of school buildings and educational practices throughout the twentieth century to today. Through international cases studies that span the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australia, this volume examines historical innovations in school architecture and situates these within changing pedagogical ideas about the ‘best’ ways to educate children. It also investigates the challenges posed by new technologies and the digital age to the design and use of school places. Set around three interlinked themes – school buildings, school spaces and school cultures – this book argues that education is mediated or framed by the spaces in which it takes place, and that those spaces are in turn influenced by cultural, political and social concerns about teaching, learning and the child.

Kate Darian-Smith

Books

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