There is no weapon more visceral than the bayonet. It encourages an intimate form of killing, and during WW1, Australia troops plunged, parried and stabbed with great vigour.
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Historical perspective can offer much in this time of ecological crisis,. Many historians are reinventing their traditional scales of space and time to tell different kinds of stories that recognise the unruly power of nature.
The road to three writers’ festivals in three weeks prompts reflection on authors liberated by road trips - and those sharing the journey now.
Away from the state capitals, small museums are out of step with big city curators - presenting tourists with stories that give a blinkered view of local history.
The Flinders Ranges in South Australia is Adnyamathanha Country. A country of 600 million-year-old fossils and 45,000-year-old living culture.
Simone Biles enters the 2019 World Gymnastics Championships already with the most all-around gold medals ever. The greatest of all time, she has changed the sport forever.
Don’t blame the global financial crisis. The Australian art market has performed poorly over the last decade - but there is plenty of growth potential.
A 40-year friendship ends badly and publicly, leading to a forensic examination of what it means to have and be a friend.
There is so much more to Iran than politics. Its traditional music carries messages of beauty, joy, sorrow and love to the world.
There are memorial stones scattered along songlines throughout the Australian landscape, victims and transgressors transformed into rock following epic struggles to stand as cautionary tales.
A giant ocean fish swims into the heart of industrial Port Kembla looking for food. What if we take its presence, a few km from an ancient, living midden, as a symbol of both new and old ways to learn in the age of the Anthropocene?
For decades, a book wrongly identified as ‘The Holy Koran’ was kept at a mosque in Broken Hill. Who was the unnamed traveller who brought Bengali stories of the prophets to the Australian desert?
New York in the early 1980s was a time of literary salons, concentrated ambition and a flowering of gay cultural power.
When Matthew Condon began writing about corruption in Queensland he discovered that members of his own family had cameos in the narrative.
Long before 70s hippies and hipster artisans, Australians were seeking solace by going back to the land. They ranged from anarchists to suffragists to Catholic agrarians.
50 years after Apollo 11, a new exhibition considers artistic responses to our celestial neighbour. As we retreat from human space exploration, our relationship to the moon has become virtual.
Many historic ideas about women’s beauty - from prizing firm breasts to emphasising the ‘natural’ - continue to resonate today.
As we face a growing tide of unregulated hate speech, the media is crucial in normalising diversity. Yet progress here has been slow. Even the ABC has failed to meet some of its own targets for hiring a diversity of employees.
Public taste has changed and that is that. It’s not just the references that date in topical satire. Audiences are powerful, and if they feel insulted they can shut down a comedian.
For poet John Kinsella, veganism is an ethics of commitment. Living as a vegan, he writes, is not a holier-than-thou situation, but a move towards being more respectful of life.
Top contributors
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Professor in Politics and Journalism, University of Notre Dame Australia
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Associate Professor in Literary Studies, Monash University
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Associate Professor in Creative Writing, Griffith University
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Visiting Research Fellow, Department of English and Creative Writing, Adelaide University
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Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
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Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland
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Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.
Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney
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PhD Candidate, Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor (adjunct) in Creative Writing, Flinders University
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Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne
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Lecturer, Deakin University
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Professor Emeritus of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith University
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Professor of English, Flinders University
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Research Fellow, Digital Cultures & Societies, The University of Queensland