Australia Archives - Public Seminar

Politics

Break Up the Tech Monopoly

No corporation should be so big or systemically important that it can credibly threaten to cut an entire nation off from the news

February 3, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

Australian leaders want Google to pay news outlets for articles the tech giant serves up to users. In response, Google threatened to pull its search engine from the entire country. Not just news, but democracy is at stake. Google’s threat sounds absurd. But it actually happened. And Google wasn’t alone: Facebook also ...

Past Present

The Australian Bushfires

Past Present Podcast, Episode 211

January 14, 2020 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Fire is ravaging Australia. Natalia referred to this Washington Post piece about the politicization of the fires. Niki discussed the long history of bushfires in Australia. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia recommended Ashley Fetters’ Atlantic article, “The Boys Who Wear Shorts All Winter.”Neil discussed Campbell Robinson and Elizabeth Dias’ New ...

Migration

From Offshore Detention of Refugees to Indigenous Incarceration

December 18, 2019 • by Anne McNevin

Well before this crisis, conditions in Australia’s offshore camps were described as “torture” by medical professionals, Amnesty International, and refugees themselves. Médecins Sans Frontières reported “catastrophic effects on …mental health” that are “among the worst that MSF has ever seen.” Twelve refugees have died while held offshore. Benham Satah, a Kurdish refugee who witnessed ...

From Offshore Detention of Refugees to Indigenous Incarceration

Feature

Behrouz Boochani and the Biopolitics of the Camp

The New Primo Levi?

February 16, 2019 • by Dimitris Vardoulakis

Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains, a literary sensation upon its publication in Australia in August 2018, and soon to be released in the United States, deserves a place alongside classics of the prison writing genre. [1] At the same time, it contains important lessons for everyone thinking about power in the ...

Feature

Finding Refuge

When Secure Borders Are Not the Answer

May 30, 2017 • by Anne McNevin and Klaus Neumann

As countries in the global North fortify their borders against irregular migrants from the global South, border walls proliferate. Argentina constructed a wall at its border with Paraguay. Hungary recently erected a second, electrified fence at its border with Serbia. And Donald Trump’s administration is still committed to building at ...