Critical Approaches to the Australian Blue Humanities

Critical Approaches to the Australian Blue Humanities is an edited interdisciplinary collection that explores and analyses the field of the blue humanities through an Australian lens. The blue humanities is a way of understanding humanity's relationship with water and manifestations of what is referred to as the 'blue' - reefs, oceans, rivers, creeks, basins, and inland bodies of water.
Australia's blue stretches from the world's largest ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef, to the urban landscapes of metropolitan Australia. In its scope, this collection emphasises both the importance of the local and the interconnectedness of Australia with global environmental concerns. It considers ways in which the 'blue' manifests in Australian place and space and critiques how we conceptualise watery spaces and shades of blue in a country where water is often marked by its absence, its ephemerality, its politicisation and its dangers. Contributors from history, political science, English literature, creative arts, Indigenous knowledge, education and anthropology will tackle various entanglements between the human, the more-than-human and watery Australian spaces in modern culture.
It is the first volume to offer a specific, dedicated focus on the intersections between Australian blue space and the blue humanities. The collection offers a pathway for those wishing to explore, critique and advance ideas around the blue humanities in both research and teaching.
Directly addressing a growing interdisciplinary field, the critical essays will appeal to scholars, educators and students working across the humanities with an interest in the environmental humanities, ecopolitics, ecocriticism, the blue humanities, cultural geography, environmental history and the role of place.