Portal
The Great Dis-Equalizer : The Covid-19 Crisis Special Issue
vol.
17
no.
1-2
2020
21058007
2020
periodical issue
'The COVID-19 crisis—as much economic and political as biological and affective—is a shared global event that made present the fragility of the world we live in. The crisis was quickly heralded as the onset of a new normal, as media and political elites rushed to reassure us that the pandemic was the ‘great equalizer’ and that we all had to come together in solidarity to defeat the spread of the virus. The tendency to universalize the lived experience of the crisis and living in lockdown by asking people to adapt to the ‘new normal’ by appealing to their sense of vulnerability and affective bonds, only served to underscore that the pandemic did not, in fact, affect people equally. This special issue of PORTAL presents diverse accounts of living in lockdown or through the pandemic in ways that significantly unsettle the narrative of the COVID-19 crisis as the ‘great equalizer.’ The collection hosts a series of self-reflective essays and cultural works that discuss the authors’ individual experiences of the COVID-19 crisis in diverse contexts, including Australia, South and North America, Asia, Africa and Europe. The collection of first-hand narrative accounts aims to contribute to reframing the pandemic as the ‘great dis-equalizer.’' (Nicholas Manganas and Alice Loda, A Borrowed Life: Introduction to the Great Dis-Equalizer—the COVID-19 Crisis editorial introduction)
Portal
Decolonisation : Ripples in the Asia Pacific, Special Double Issue
vol.
16
no.
1/2
November
2019
18375101
2019
periodical issue
Portal
Rencontres : A Gathering of Voices of the Vietnamese Diaspora
vol.
15
no.
1/2
August
2018
14391760
2018
periodical issue
'This special issue follows a conference entitled ‘Rencontres: A Gathering of Voices of the Vietnamese Diaspora’ that was held at the University of Melbourne, December 1-2 in 2016 and which sought to enable, for the first time, the titular transdiasporic rencontres or encounters between international authors of the Vietnamese diaspora. The present amalgam of previously unpublished texts written by celebrated Francophone and Anglophone authors of Vietnamese descent writing in France, New Caledonia and Australia today is the result of the intercultural exchanges that took place during that event. Literary texts by Linda Lê, Anna Moï and Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut are followed by writerly reflections on the theme of transdiasporic encounters from Hoai Huong Nguyen, Jean Vanmai and Hoa Pham. Framing and enriching these texts, scholarly contributions by established experts in the field consider the literary, cultural and linguistic transfers that characterize contemporary writing by authors of Vietnamese origin across the Francophone world.' (Introduction)
Portal
Cultural Works : Transitions and Dislocations
vol.
14
no.
1
Paul Allatson
(editor),
2017
11171817
2017
periodical issue
Portal
Designing Futures in Indonesia
vol.
13
no.
2
Alexandra Crosby
(editor),
2016
11173714
2016
periodical issue
Portal
Australians Abroad
vol.
10
no.
1
Juliana De Nooy
(editor),
2013
11172608
2013
periodical issue
'Although commonly characterized as an immigrant nation, Australia has been shaped just as importantly by the overseas journeys of its people, and the liminal experiences thus provided have not only been self-defining and defining of the other, but at times nation-defining. This special issue proposes a multidisciplinary analysis of Australian travellers and expatriates past and present: the reasons for and destinations of their travel, its impact on their identity, the roles they play, their writings and reflections, their linguistic and intercultural competence.
'Clusters of travellers to particular destinations give rise to narrative patterns which solidify into templates, the narrative equivalent of the beaten track. The essays that follow highlight both discursive grooves and off-piste accounts that challenge the patterns. In both cases, the emphasis in the essays is on the travellers’ active engagement in the experience and on their negotiation of existing discourses. For even those who follow the trail invest it with personal meanings.'
Source: Introduction.
Portal
Imagined Transcultural Histories and Geographies
vol.
9
no.
2
2012
11172368
2012
periodical issue
Portal
Health and Borders Across Time and Cultures: China, India and the Indian Ocean Region
vol.
8
no.
2
Beatriz Carrillo García
(editor),
Devleena Ghosh
(editor),
2011
Z1866826
2011
periodical issue
Portal
vol.
7
no.
2
2010
Z1752086
2010
periodical issue
Portal
Fields of Remembrance
vol.
7
no.
1
2010
Z1715043
2010
periodical issue
Portal
The Space Between: Languages, Translations and Cultures
vol.
6
no.
1
Vera Mackie
(editor),
Ikuko Nakane
(editor),
Emi Otsuji
(editor),
2009
Z1620606
2009
periodical issue
Portal
Italian Cultures: Writing Italian Cultural Studies in the World
vol.
5
no.
2
2008
Z1620774
2008
periodical issue
Portal
vol.
5
no.
1
January
2008
Z1493379
2008
periodical issue
'The first issue of PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies for 2008 is a special issue with the title “Hyperworld(s): Language, Culture, and History in the Latin American world(s),” guest edited by Jeff Browitt and Paul Allatson (University of Technology Sydney). The issue—comprising related essays and cultural works—evolved from the 2006 biennial conference of the Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia, “Hyperworld: language, culture, history,” held at UTS in September 2006.'
(Publication summary)
Portal
The Revival of Chinese Cultural Nationalism
vol.
4
no.
1
January
Yingjie Guo
(editor),
2007
Z1355088
2007
periodical issue
'PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies enters its fourth year with the journal’s first special Chinese-language issue. Organised under the rubric of ‘The Revival of Chinese Cultural Nationalism,’ the issue has been guest edited by Dr Yingjie Guo of the Institute for International Studies, University of Technology Sydney, and features the work of scholars based in China and Australia. As Guo says in his introductory essay to the special issue, debates over cultural nationalism in China have been on the rise since the events in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989; indeed, the post-Tiananmen era in China may be witnessing what Guo calls an unparalleled cultural-political movement in the country’s history. The various contributors to this special issue explore the ramifications and manifestations of that broad cultural-political movement in film production, television drama, literary texts, cultural essays, regional entrepreneurship, and contemporary debates on nationalism and liberalism. This issue of PORTAL also features four non-special issue essays: a study of feminist ethics in the work of Filipino-Australian writer and dramatist Merlinda Bobis, by Dolores Herrero (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain); a taut critique of the discourse that regards the twentieth century as the bloodiest and most atrocious in human history, by David B. MacDonald (Otago University, New Zealand); a trenchant analysis, by Ramzi Nasser and Kamal Abouchedid (Notre Dame University, Lebanon), of what the authors call the rise of “academic apartheid” in the university sector throughout the Arab world; and a fascinating exploration of the feminism and environmentalism pioneered by the Australian author, mountaineer, solicitor and Buddhist Marie Byles (1900-1979), by Allison Cadzow (University of Technology Sydney). Finally, it is a huge pleasure to also include in PORTAL’s cultural works section a selection of poems by the Chinese poet Yang Lian, translated by Mabel Lee (responsible for translating Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian’s novels Soul Mountain [2000] and One Man’s Bible [2002] into English).'
(Publication summary)
