This book approaches Australo-German relations from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. It maps new pathways into the rich landscape of the Australo-German transnational encounter, which is characterized by dense and interwoven cultural, historical and political terrains. Surveying an astonishingly wide range of sites from literary translations to film festivals, Aboriginal art to education systems, the contributions offer a uniquely expansive dossier on the migrations of people, ideas, technologies, money and culture between the two countries. The links between Australia and Germany are explored from a variety of new, interdisciplinary perspectives, and situated within key debates in literary and cultural studies, critical theory, politics, linguistics and transnational studies. The book gathers unique contributions that span the areas of migra tion, aboriginality, popular culture, music, media and institutional structures to create a dynamic portrait of the exchanges between these two nations over time. Australo-German relations have emerged from intersecting histories of colonialism, migration, communication, tourism and socio-cultural representation into the dramatically changed twenty-first century, where traditional channels of connection between nations in the Western hemisphere have come undone, but new channels ensure cross-fertilization between newly constituted borders.

This volume explores the notion of German cinema as both a national and increasingly transnational entity. It brings together chapters that analyse the international circuits of development and distribution that shape the emerging films as part of a contemporary “German cinema”, the events and spectacles that help frame and re-frame national cinemas and their discoverability, and the well-known filmmakers who sit at the vanguard of the contemporary canon. Thereby, it explores what we understand as German cinema today and the many points where this idea of national cinema can be interrogated, expanded and opened up to new readings. At the heart of this interrogation is a keen awareness of the technological, social, economic and cultural changes that have an impact on global cinemas more broadly: new distribution channels such as streaming platforms and online film festivals, and audience engagement that transcends national borders as well as the cinema space. International film production and financing further heightens the transnational aspects of cinema, a quality that is often neglected in marketing and branding of the filmic product. With particular focus on film festivals, this volume explores the tensions between the national and transnational in film, but also in the events that sit at the heart of global cinema culture. It includes contributions from filmmakers, cultural managers and other professionals in the field of film and cinema, as well as scholarly contributions from academics researching popular culture, film, and events in relation to Germany.

Theatre and Internationalization examines how internationalization affects the processes and aesthetics of theatre, and how this art form responds dramatically and thematically to internationalization beyond the stage. With central examples drawn from Australia and Germany from the 1930s to the present day, the book considers theatre and internationalization through a range of theoretical lenses and methodological practices, including archival research, aviation history, theatre historiography, arts policy, organizational theory, language analysis, academic-practitioner insights, and literary-textual studies. While drawing attention to the ways in which theatre and internationalization might be contributing productively to each other and to the communities in which they operate, it also acknowledges the limits and problematic aspects of internationalization. Taking an unusually wide approach to theatre, the book includes chapters by specialists in popular commercial theatre, disability theatre, Indigenous performance, theatre by and for refugees and other migrants, young people as performers, opera and operetta, and spoken art theatre. An excellent resource for academics and students of theatre and performance studies, especially in the fields of spoken theatre, opera and operetta studies, and migrant theatre, Theatre and Internationalization explores how theatre shapes and is shaped by international flows of people, funds, practices, and works.

Maintaining English as the sole language of knowledge production and dissemination in universities that enrol students who speak multiple languages, and those students learning other languages, is questionable. This groundbreaking work calls into question the exclusive use of academic English in internationalising higher education teaching and research. By interrogating the dominant assumptions informing the monolingual mindset, Postmonolingual Critical Thinking indicates that academically literate students can capably use their repertoires of languages and knowledge for educational purposes. The case for students’ languages and knowledge having a place in English-medium universities is made through evidence of the uses of Zhōngwén, academic Chinese. Proposing to broaden the scope of languages used for knowledge production and dissemination, this book highlights the educational potential of multilingualism. Postmonolingual Critical Thinking makes a unique proposal: that universities which recruit doctoral students from Asia create education policy practices that enable them to extend their multilingual capabilities. Arguing that by drawing on intellectual resources from their various languages, students construct knowledge of critical thinking in complex, interesting and potentially innovative ways, this book guides higher education institutions in putting this into practice. It outlines a pragmatic approach for universities to explore the potential of multipolar, multilingual education, while being attentive to the tensions posed by assertions of a monolingual mindset. Postmonolingual Critical Thinking has the potential to create great change in a higher education sector which is mired by a monolingual approach to graduate training. This unique and thought-provoking book is essential reading for those in the fields of applied linguistics, comparative education, higher education, international studies, teacher education and translation studies.

Rethinking Languages Education assembles innovative research from experts in the fields of sociocultural theory, applied linguistics and education. The contributors interrogate innovative and recent thinking and broach controversies about the theoretical and practical considerations that underpin the implementation of effective Languages pedagogy in twenty-first-century classrooms. Crucially, Rethinking Languages Education explores established understandings about language, culture and education to provide a more comprehensive and flexible understanding of Languages education that responds to local classrooms impacted by global and transnational change, and the politics of language, culture and identity. Rethinking Languages Education focuses on questions about ways that we can develop farsighted and successful Languages education for diverse students in globalised contexts. The response to these questions is multi-layered, and takes into account the complex interactions between policy, curriculum and practice, as well as their contention and implementation. In doing so, this book addresses and integrates innovative perspectives of contemporary theory and pedagogy for Languages, TESOL and EAL/D education. It includes diverse discussions around practice, and addresses issues of the dominance of prestige Languages programs for ‘minority’ and ‘heritage’ languages, as well as discussing controversies about the current provision of English and Languages programs around the world.

The Asia literacy dilemma brings forward a novel approach to the long-standing global debates of Asia-related teaching and learning. By bringing into focus ‘Asia’ as a curriculum area, the book provides original commentary on the rationale and feasibility of ‘Asia literacy’ and its role and significance within and for twenty-first-century education. The book’s unique contribution lies in a comprehensive problematisation of ‘Asia’ as planned, enacted and experienced curriculum, bringing together policy, teacher practice and student experiences to present an extensive discussion. By contextualising the problematics of Asia-related curriculum within contemporary national and transnational curriculum challenges, Cairns and Weinmann take account of conflicting discourses of nation-building, ethnocentrism, transnationalism, geo-economics and the purposes of twenty-first-century education. Its use of interview data with teachers and students recentres key actors that are often sidelined in official curriculum policy discourse. The book also introduces the concept of curricularisation to describe the process through which objects and discourses of curriculum are produced and reproduced. In doing so, the book presents a comprehensive discussion of the impossibilities and possibilities of Asia curriculum in the Australian context, providing an innovative longitudinal and integrated understanding of the status quo of Asia curriculum. Highlighting the urgent need to reinvigorate the re-emerging centrality of curriculum in recent education debates around policy, teacher standards, assessmentand learning outcomes, this book is an important reference for education policy experts and academics in the fields of curriculum studies, teacher education and studies of Asia.

This book interrogates politics and practices of multiculturalism and multicultural education in contexts where liberal and critical multiculturalism is under pressure. It examines and interrogates perspectives on multiculturalism and the political and social to diversity in societies in Asia and Europe. It is set against a background of increasing right wing radicalism and pervasive authoritarianism in different parts of the world. These ideologies not only undermine multiculturalism but the potential of democracy itself. The book includes chapters from leading scholars on multiculturalism, interculturalism and diversity around the world. It examines the challenges to multicultural diversity in the Global North, and makes a distinctive contribution by addressing this issue in the Global South societies of Asia, including Myanmar, China, and Pakistan. As such, this book opens up international debate about multiculturalism by providing exchanges rarely heard across borders.

What kind of cultural encounters enhance cultural awareness and intercultural competence in educational contexts? This volume highlights the potential of different types of (inter)cultural encounters for intercultural learning and developing critical (cultural) awareness in education. The book's articles explore the potential of critical reading of classical and other culturally relevant texts, as well as physical or virtual encounters with people from other cultures as part of course activities for the development of intercultural competence. (Series: Intercultural Education / Interkulturelle Padagogik - Vol. 13) [Subject: Education, Cultural Studies]

Cultural Encounters in Translated Children's Literature offers a detailed and innovative model of analysis for examining the complexities of translating children's literature and sheds light on the interpretive choices at work in moving texts from one culture to another. The core of the study addresses the issue of how images of a nation, locale or country are constructed in translated children's literature, with the translation of Australian children's fiction into French serving as a case study. Issues examined include the selection of books for translation, the relationship between children's books and the national and international publishing industry, the packaging of translations and the importance of titles, blurbs and covers, the linguistic and stylistic features specific to translating for children, intertextual references, the function of the translation in the target culture, didactic and pedagogical aims, euphemistic language and explicitation, and literariness in translated texts. The findings of the case study suggest that the most common constructs of Australia in French translations reveal a preponderance of traditional Eurocentric signifiers that identify Australia with the outback, the antipodes, the exotic, the wild, the unknown, the void, the end of the world, the young and innocent nation, and the Far West. Contemporary signifiers that construct Australia as urban, multicultural, Aboriginal, worldly and inharmonious are seriously under-represented. The study also shows that French translations are conventional, conservative and didactic, showing preference for an exotic rather than local specificity, with systematic manipulation of Australian referents betraying a perception of Australia as antipodean rural exoticism. The significance of the study lies in underscoring the manner in which a given culture is constructed in another cultural milieu, especially through translated children's literature.