Comparative Border Studies. While borders are of increasing interest to Australian scholars and policy-makers, much existing research in Australia is focused on issues of border security or border integrity. There is an urgent need to supplement this work with theoretical and empirical insights drawn from the field of border studies. North America is a key site for international research in this field. Collaboration with North American scholars is thus an important step in developing and expandi ....Comparative Border Studies. While borders are of increasing interest to Australian scholars and policy-makers, much existing research in Australia is focused on issues of border security or border integrity. There is an urgent need to supplement this work with theoretical and empirical insights drawn from the field of border studies. North America is a key site for international research in this field. Collaboration with North American scholars is thus an important step in developing and expanding Australian expertise in border studies. This project will provide the intellectual environment and collaborative networks necessary to establish the first dedicated Centre for Border Studies in Australia.Read moreRead less
"The Whole Map of the Balkans": Ethnicity, National Identity and Empire in the Work of Ismail Kadare. The Albanian intellectual, Ismail Kadare, foreshadowed the re-valorization of ethnic identity as a socio-political category under late 20th century communism. While Kadare's novels and essays deal primarily with his native Albania, they also represent the emergence more broadly of ethnicity as a factor in the literature of Eastern and South-Eastern European socialism. The project will explore in ...."The Whole Map of the Balkans": Ethnicity, National Identity and Empire in the Work of Ismail Kadare. The Albanian intellectual, Ismail Kadare, foreshadowed the re-valorization of ethnic identity as a socio-political category under late 20th century communism. While Kadare's novels and essays deal primarily with his native Albania, they also represent the emergence more broadly of ethnicity as a factor in the literature of Eastern and South-Eastern European socialism. The project will explore in depth the relationship between ethnicity, ideology and socialist literary culture that underpins Kadare's work, providing the first detailed analytical and critical study in English, and locating Kadare in the context of the major lines of contemporary European thought regarding ethnicity and ethnic identity.Read moreRead less