The theme of this year’s series is transnational commonwealths: from cross-Tasman passages between New Zealand and Australia to parallel trans-Indigenous connections between Wiradjuri Country and the Pacific from Samoa to Aotearoa; we also aim to traverse the shifting meridians of the global surprisingly synchronizing Australia and the Caribbean.
In lieu of SPACLALS’s biennial conference, the organization presents a video conference speaker series.
Full details are to be announced but speakers who have agreed to participate include Associate Professor Selina Tusitala Marsh, Dr Jeanine Leane (Melbourne University), Associate Professor Maria Bargh (Te Kawa a Māui at Victoria University, Wellington), Professor Lydia Wevers (Victoria University, Wellington), and Chair of Australian Literature Tony Hughes D’Aeth (University of Western Australia).
We may have some gaps in the program and particularly encourage submissions with a title and 350 word abstract for a presentation by Zoom from First Nations scholars or Feminist scholars as well as areas of the Commonwealth/former-Commonwealth that we have yet to engage such as Africa and South Asia with a connection to the theme and we would also like to include excellent postgraduate and early career scholars. Proposals to Dr. Michael R. Griffiths mickg@uow.edu.au
South Pacific Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies