Editor's welcome, PORTAL, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 2009

Abstract

‘The Space Between: Languages, Translations and Cultures’ is a special issue of PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies guest-edited by Vera Mackie (University of Melbourne), Ikuko Nakane (University of Melbourne), and Emi Otsuji (University of Technology, Sydney). As Vera Mackie and Stephanie Hemelryk Donald (University of Sydney) say in the introduction to the special issue: All of the contributors to this special issue have reflected on the stakes involved in negotiating differences in language and culture. In their research and professional practice they inhabit the ‘space between’: the space between languages, the space between cultures, and the space between academic disciplines. While many of our contributors are located in the Australian university system, we also have contributors from outside that system, as well as contributors who are theorising disparate sites for the negotiation of difference. The most exciting aspect of the papers presented here is the ability to move between the spheres of cultural theory and the everyday. Analytical techniques originally developed for literary and cultural analysis are brought to bear on the texts and practices of everyday life. In addition to the critical essays, three cultural works also intervene in the discussion over what it means to inhabit the ‘space between’ languages, cultures and countries. The guest editors and the PORTAL editorial committee would like to acknowledge and thank the following institutions and individual for the support that made this special issue possible: the Australian Research Council’s Cultural Research Network; the former Institute for International Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney; the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne; and the ARC Cultural Literacies Node Convener, Mark Gibson.