When the world is exhausting, when life grinds you down, the Survival Kit is the place feminists turn for nourishment and solace. More than just an exercise in neoliberal selfcare, Survival Kits are about sustaining a community and a political project.
This article examines how women's broadcasting promoted consciousness and appreciation of the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. These were decades in which Australians had limited access to US news and culture, and Hollywood dominated local imaginings of US society. In this climate, Australians who had lived Stateside were hailed as authorities on the nation and its people, and they often spoke on radio. Among these "America educators" were significant numbers of women. Armed with firsthand knowledge of the wider world, these female travelers could claim space in a broadcasting landscape otherwise dominated by men. Through their radio broadcasts, they aspired to foster transpacific understanding and friendship. Women's broadcasting was therefore a cultural force at the vanguard of Australia's "turn to America." More than a manifestation of US popular culture, radio depicted the United States as an ally of and model for Australia during an era of entrenched British allegiance.
Nothing to Hide is Australia's first mainstream anthology of trans and gender-diverse writing. While there has been unprecedented trans visibility in Australia in the last decade, this visibility has not always been positive, shadowed at every step by transphobic misinformation and extremist rhetoric. As a counter to the harmful chorus of anti-trans voices, this collection features the work of thirty trans and gender-diverse people across the spectrum of age, race, geography and circumstance. The writers give voice to their communities and tell their own stories, on their own terms. Showcasing the wealth of creativity within the trans and gender-diverse community and providing illuminating insights into the challenges and joys of trans experience, Nothing to Hide is a powerful contribution to Australian literature
Capitalism is back. Three decades ago, when all alternatives to liberal democracy and free markets appeared discredited, talk of capitalism seemed passé. Now, after a decade of political and economic turmoil, capitalism and its temporal critique of progress and decline again seems an indispensable category to understanding a world in flux. Among the social sciences, historians have led both the embrace and critique of this 're-emergent' concept. This roundtable discussion between leading and emerging Australian scholars working across histories of economy, work, policy, geography and political economy, extends this agenda. Representing the outcome of a workshop convened at La Trobe University in November 2018 and responding to questions posed by conveners Huf and Rees, five participants debate the nature, utility and future of the new constellation of 'economic' historical scholarship. While conducted well before the outbreak of COVID-19, the ensuring discussion nevertheless speaks saliently to the crises of our times.