Indonesia is a constitutional democracy constructed on the Republican model: according to the country’s constitution, political power emanates from the people, not from God. Nevertheless, public and political life in the Republic is thick with religion, reflecting the strong enthusiasm for religion amongst Indonesians. Indonesia’s Ministry of Religion plays a major role in administering […]
The politics of Islamic education in Indonesia Read More »
The unanimity of Ukraine’s national identity After 24 February 2022, when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western leaders and media expressed surprise at the remarkable cohesion of Ukrainian society and its practically unanimous support for continuing to fight until all of Ukraine’s territory was recovered. Two factors help explain this public mood. First,
Identity shifts in wartime Ukraine Read More »
Australia — home to the world’s oldest living civilisation Two hundred and twenty years after Matthew Flinders completed the circumnavigation of the Great South Land and gave the continent the name we know today, the idea of Australia is at last poised to become deeper and more nuanced. And accurate, as a birth certificate should
The half-formed idea of Australia Read More »
Literary historians have long known that nineteenth-century Australian newspapers published fiction. But the size of the newspaper archive and the difficulty of exploring it meant we had only partial knowledge of the stories and the importance of newspapers to the history of reading and writing fiction. The National Library of Australia’s (NLA) digitisation of historical
To be continued: making (and discovering) Australia’s literary history Read More »
When Elon Musk took his first steps toward taking control of Twitter in April 2022, journalists noted some of the concerning implications of his self-avowed status as a “free speech absolutist,” but otherwise treated him as a serious candidate for the job. After all, the billionaire tech entrepreneur’s combination of extreme wealth, extraordinary self-belief and
Elon Musk, Twitter’s platform culture & what comes next Read More »
The Australian Academy of the Humanities recognises Australia’s First Nations Peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of this land, and their continuous connection to country, community and culture.