The first decade of the twenty-first century has seen an increasing trend in the field of Australian Studies for scholars to situate their research within a broader international context and conversation. In some cases, this involves exploring how concepts developed in other national contexts can be employed to illuminate aspects of the Australian experience; in others, the focus is on the transnational movement of people and ideas between Australia and the rest of the world. This collection of essays represents a selection of this recent scholarship, particularly in relation to conversations between scholars in Australia and India, and was initiated under the auspices of the Indian Association for the Study of Australia (Eastern Region). The essays are drawn from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives - history, literature, film, education, sociology and politics, cultural studies and environmental studies. The papers collected in the volume are selections from the conference proceedings of an international conference on Re-mapping the Future: History, Culture and Environment in Australia and India. This volume particularly explores various intersections of history, culture and environment in the discourse of cross-cultural linkages between Australia and India. It builds on the commonality of cultural networks, the intercolonial history of encounter and exchange, and the Indian diasporic presence in Australia, and looks forward to a future in terms of a developing bilateral relationship between Australia and India.
About the Author: Raelene Frances is Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Monash University. She is the author/co-author of five books on aspects of Australian labour, gender and war history, and is currently working on two collaborative projects: one on the history of sex work, led by the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam, and the other on the history of Anzac Day at home and abroad, led by Professor Bruce Scates at the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash. Deb Narayan Bandyopadhyay is Professor of English and Director of the Academic Staff College at Burdwan University. He is the Secretary of IASA (Eastern Region). He gave a course of lectures at the University of Vienna and the University of Salzburg, and has also visited the University of Edinburgh and Mansfield College with assistance from the British Council. He has worked at Northern Illinois University, the University of Chicago and State University of New York on the Fulbright Exchange Program, and has held Visiting positions at Monash University, the University of New South Wales and the University of Wollongong. He is currently Honorary Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University.