ABOUT SPACLALS

South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies

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SPACLALS is one of the 11 regional chapters of ACLALS. It has a long and distinguished history, beginning with the first SPACLALS conference at the University of Queensland in 1977. It is no exaggeration to say that the Australian impetus toward postcolonial studies began there and then. (Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin – authors of the ground-breaking study, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literature (1989) - were all founding members.) It was also at that SPACLALS 1977 conference that the formation of a national association dedicated to the study of Australian Literature was proposed; and the inaugural conference of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) followed a year later.

From 1987 to 2016 SPACLALS also published SPAN, a biannual journal that included critical articles and book reviews on the postcolonial literatures of the South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand.

The SPACLALS logo is taken from the front cover of a back issue of SPAN.

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Current Executive Committee (2021–23)

Past Chairs: Professor Russell McDougall (University of New England); Associate Professor Anne Collett (University of Wollongong)

Chair: Dr Michael Griffiths (University of Wollongong)

Treasurer: Dr Ben Miller (University of Sydney)

Secretary: Associate Professor Chris Prentice (University of Otago).

Postgraduate Representative: Patrick Brennan (University of Wollongong).

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Current Advisory Board (2018-2023)

Board Member: Associate Professor Selina Tusitala Marsh (University of Auckland)

Board Member: Associate Professor Anne Brewster (University  of New South Wales)

Board Member: Celestine Hitiura Vaite (Independent Writer)