The Camden Miss Showgirl competition is, in many ways, an anachronism from the past. It has survived for 49 years under the onslaught of feminism, post-modernism, globalization and urbanisation. A worthy feat indeed.
The competition is still popular, and the local press is always a strong supporter. The 2010 Camden Showgirl competition attracted…[Read more]

Once again, country show societies are gearing up for the annual New South Wales Miss Showgirl competition. In 2008 500 young women entered the pageant at a local level representing 120 show societies, with the Sydney Royal Easter Show finals. The 2011 Camden Miss Showgirl has attracted seven young local women – four of the seven are university s…[Read more]

Abstract: “Broadcasting change: in empathic dialogue with Duffy and Jennings’s graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower,” analyzes the medium-specificity of the adaptation by applying a combined theoretical approach that incorporates cognitive narratology and narrative empathy. A discursive dialogue between the two media…[Read more]

The partition of British India into two sovereign independent nations of India and Pakistan in 1947 was one of the most defining moments of the socio-political course of the sub-continent. The fight for independence from colonial rule and the rise of nationalism rooted in the religious discourse of two prominent religious communities- Hindus and…[Read more]

In central Camden is an empty bank building of understated significance at the intersection of John and Argyle Streets. This building was once the premises of Westpace, formerly the Bank of New South Wales, and was the second banking chamber on that site. Constructed in the 1930s by a prominent firm of Sydney architects, the building is of much…[Read more]

This is a thoroughly researched and readable book that provides a glimpse of life in western New South Wales during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the eyes of a woman, Rachel Kennedy (1845-1930). The book is a wonderful contribution to female biography and regional community history, and illustrates the precarity of life for women…[Read more]

This article examines two important texts of Teresa de Jesús, El Libro de la vida and Las moradas del castillo interior, to take a new look at an old debate about whether Santa Teresa’s written expression is “spontaneous” or whether it is in fact more literary. Dr. Davis arrives at the conclusion that the writer’s works are both more indebted to…[Read more]

Using the transatlantic relación of Diego Portichuelo de Ribadeneyra (1657) as an example, this essay tracks some of the ways in which several religious passengers narrated their experience crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the Spanish Indies fleets during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. Of particular importance here are the ways in…[Read more]

On the example of “The Walking Dead”, we demonstrate in how far the reception of pop culture narratives can serve not merely trivial entertainment, but epistemological interest as well. For this purpose, we introduce the term pop cultural secondary worlds and formulate the thesis that these can be used analogously to thought experiments. The…[Read more]