CROSSINGS Volume 10.2 / 2005

EDITORIAL David Carter Welcome to the second issue of Crossings, the bulletin of the International Australian Studies Association, for 2005. Following the pattern established over previous years, this edition features Australian Studies in one country outside Australia, our feature this year being Australian Studies in Spain. In addition to reports from the Universities of Barcelona, Oviedo and Zaragoza, we have a report from a Spanish student working towards her PhD in Australian Studies at Southern Cross University in Lismore. We also feature three essay on the institutional and conceptual issues surrounding the theory and practice of area studies. Kim Nossal writes on the Canadian government's support for Canadian Studies offshore, Lydia Wevers considers the challenges of establishing the new interdisciplinary field of New Zealand Studies, and I contribute a paper on the ways in which Australian Studies, in Australia at least, has never quite functioned as 'area studies'. These three papers were first presented at the British World conference held in Auckland in July this year as part of a panel organised by InASA Vice-President Andrew Hassam. The international interests and activities of Australian Studies (or 'studies') is represented by the long list of items included here under the heading of News and Reports. Here readers will find an advertisement calling for applications for the Chair in Australian Studies at Tokyo University, reports on Australian Studies activities at the University of Queensland, the University of Montenegro, and Monash University, a report on the very successful conference on Indigenous Education convened by Maggie Nolan, a call for book reviewers for the British journal Australian Studies, an announcement of the winners of the University of Melbourne's Australian Centre's Literary Awards, early announcements for conferences from Toulouse, ASAL, AAALS and for contributions to a panel on Post-Multicultural Nations, and a piece by Tim O'Dwyer on the remarkable story of an Australian World War II returnee. Last but not least, we include a review of the important new book Thinking Australian Studies, featuring many InASA members. The book can be ordered on-line direct from the University of Queensland Press. Our usual extensive list of conference makes one dream of never having to work again. How can we invent the career of 'professional conference-goer'? Suggestions welcome. Australian Studies Centre The University of Queensland October 2005