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[ecrea] Altitude: An e-journal of emerging humanities work
Thu Feb 10 06:52:39 GMT 2011
Relaunch and new issue of Altitude: An e-journal of emerging humanities work
Altitude: an e-journal of emerging humanities
work is a peer reviewed journal of emerging
innovative and creative work in the humanities.
Altitude is committed to the democratisation of
writing, research and knowledge, and to
experimentation with new journal practices. It
brings emerging and experienced scholars into
discussion with writers and thinkers outside the
academy. We use web-based open-access
technologies to provide access to research
(includes audio and visual material), and to
extend the parameters of intellectual exchange.
Volume 9, 2011, edited by Clifton Evers
We re-launch Altitude with an eclectic array of
articles sourced from the hard work, rigorous
research and creativity of emerging humanities
scholars around the globe. The issue provides
clear evidence of how even though this cohort
remains under-funded and under-resourced they
continue to produce politically important work
for their respective fields, and their global communities more broadly.
We open the issue with Shè Hawke (University of
Sydney) leading us into the creative and
experimental realm of the humanities. Hawke?s
article explores the evolution of water as
charted by earlier scientific and more recent
multidisciplinary inquiry. Its value lies in its
comparison of these scientific approaches to
water with mythic approaches to water, creation
and the maternal, through the disavowed Greek
mythic water deity Metis. Hawke creatively
demonstrates crossovers and tensions between the
disciplines of hard science and feminist
humanities. In a fascinating turn, Hawke also
elucidates psychoanalyst Sándor Ferenczi?s
concept of utraquism at the biological and
evolutionary level, as a methodological tool.
Senthorun Raj?s (University of Sydney) article
continues this theme of experimental and
creative humanities research as he examines the
relationship between performativity, embodiment
and transitioning in the context of a female to
male (FTM) transsexual. Using the
semi-autobiographical work of Jamison Green?s
Becoming a Visible Man, Raj places Green?s
phenomenological accounts of gender anxiety,
masculinity, and transitioning in dialogue with
Judith Butler?s work on performativity and Moira
Gatens? theorisation of the ?imagined body?. In
doing so, he takes us beyond the assumed limits of bodies.
Paul Giffard-Foret continues the gender,
sexuality and literary journey but combines this
with important issues around race and
nationalism. Giffard-Foret pushes us to consider
the work of Simone Lazaroo and Hsu-Ming Teo.
Through an analysis of these author?s work
Giffard-Foret argues that the enduring essence
or prevailing stereotype in the Western
imaginary is a certain idea of Asia as the sign
of femininity. He goes on to suggest that the
(hyper)feminisation of Asia needs to be
understood in the light of Asia?s assumed
historic and ongoing threat to the West.
Clifton Evers (University of Nottingham, Ningbo,
China) and Megan La Masurier (University of
Sydney) continue the thematic of gender but take
out of the literary field and into the field of
cultural research. In this article Evers and
Masurier draw on the results of a comprehensive
evaluation of a sport and media workshop for
young elite sportswomen. This important article
finally provides the space for young elite
sportswomen to express how they view the fact
that women?s sports continue to struggle for
recognition and coverage in newspapers,
magazines, radio and television stations, and on the Internet.
And it is the Internet that concerns Marco
Bastos (University of Sao Paulo), whose article
presents us a with a intriguing social system?s
perspective on the Internet. Bastos summarizes
the contributions of German sociologist Niklas
Luhmann and outlines the theoretical boundaries
between the theory of social systems and that of
media studies. Bastos, via Luhmann, describes
the Internet as a system, in regard to its
self-referential dynamic, and as an environment,
in regard to the non-organized complexity of
data within the medium. Bastos? article requires
us to radically rethink a number of assumptions
about Internet studies and media studies.
In this re-launch issue of Altitude we have a
dedicated section that contains a collection of
articles to emerge, under the guidance of Lisa
Waller at the University of Canberra, from the
Australian and New Zealand Communications
Association (ANZCA) 2010 held in Canberra,
Australia. This selection of articles provide
clear evidence of the quality and wide-ranging
nature of emerging communications research in this region.
Lucy Morieson?s (RMIT University) article
tackles the issue of interactivity so pertinent
to the communications industry and to
journalistic practice in the modern era.
Morieson argues that while interactivity is
often cited as a central characteristic of
online news, a number of empirical studies
suggest that it is more often held as an ideal
than accepted journalistic practice. Morieson
compares the adoption of interactivity at two
Australian online news sources The Age Online
and Crikey. Moriseon argues that the adoption of
interactivity at these sites is shaped not by
the sites? history, but rather by the way in
which each of these publications positions
themselves in relation to journalism?s changing
social and political role, wrought by broader
technological, economic and social conditions.
Perin Brown (La Trobe University) tackles the
difficult questions that are coming out of the
nexus of journalism, law, the public, and
compiling news stories on an ?off the record?
basis. Drawing on qualitative interviews with
three journalists, two of whom have been charged
or convicted for contempt of court, and two
lawyers who specialise in contempt law, Brown
explores the issue, arguing that legislation is
the only satisfactory protection for ensuring
the continuance of unauthorised leaks to
journalists, which remain important for public interest journalism.
Kirsti Rawstron?s (University of Wollongong)
article examines the portrayal of gender
relations and issues in the Japanese media
through a case study of discussions in
mainstream newspapers surrounding the
introduction in 1985 of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Law (EEOL) in Japan. This law was
introduced as part of Japan?s ratification of
the United Nations Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW). The debate surrounding the changing
EEOL is examined through articles from three
mainstream daily national newspapers, notably
the Asahi Shinbun, the Nihon Keizai Shinbun and the Yomiuri Shinbun.
Sarah Coffee (University of Newcastle) examines
the meaning of ?creativity? through Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi?s system?s model of creativity.
The article delves into four profiles of
creative practitioners from the areas of music,
art, science and journalism. In conjunction with
some self-reflexive considerations investigates
the nature of creativity for cultural producers.
Similarly, Jane Fulton (University of Newcastle)
emphasises the creativity of journalism and
explores how the social structure of print
journalism, what creativity researcher Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi calls the field, influences
print journalist?s interaction with the field
and what effect this interaction has on their
practices. This article examines a selection of
semi-structured interviews conducted with journalists and editors.
The theme of exploring creativity continues in
the article by Chloe Killen (University of
Newcastle), who argues that the best approach to
the examination of creativity is through a
?confluence approach? rather than
?unidisciplinary approaches?. Again, using
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi?s systems model of
creativity, but this timein confluence with
Pierre Bourdieu?s notions of cultural
production, Killen investigates how contemporary
Australian picture book authors operate. The
article is a case study of five authors of Australian children?s books.
-- Dr Clifton Evers
Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies
University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China.
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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
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