Abstract: This chapter examines the role/place of cross-cultural translation in New Area Studies by reading Mark Twain’s Following the Equator (1897) as a mode of area studies avant la lettre. Drawing on Raymond Williams’ Keywords (1976) and later developments of this concept, we examine Twain’s use of three terms: recruit, squatter, and native. Our close […]

Abstract: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are deeply connected to the lands, seas and skies across the settler-colonial state of Australia. They take strength from ongoing connection to culture, spirituality and community. Colonisation impacts these life-giving connections through the dispossession of peoples from Country and disconnection from community and culture. These ongoing colonial processes […]

Abstract: In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Australian brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is widely reviled as an icon of environmental destruction. This paper employs critical discourse analysis to examine how the possum is constructed as a pest within online media. Depicted as non-native, overconsuming, and proliferative, the possum emerges as a villain in antithesis to the […]