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The authors reflect on the significant role of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA) and Cultural Studies as an academic discipline in Australia in celebration of the organization's 30th anniversary. Topics discussed include the growth of the CSAA, the commitment of the CSAA to its community of scholars, and the importance of attending the CSAA conference.

The study of how ethnonationalists mobilize digital media is not matched in size by an investigation into the progressive activists digitally mobilizing against them. This is especially true in diaspora communities, which form the focus of this work. In this paper, we discuss diasporic online progressive activism against one form of ethnonationalism, Hindutva. Situating our argument in the context of the Indian Australian diaspora, we argue that the study of activist media ecologies which seek to resist Hindutva is as critical as the study of Hindutva itself, but that scholarship on this kind resistance in diaspora remains sparse. We suggest that the Australian case – witnessing a critical acceleration in Hindutva mobilization since 2020 – provides a unique opportunity to understand the role of digital media at the nascence of online resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay considers the post-COVID-19 debates over the level of migration to Australia to understand how the rhetoric of 'affective congestion' which is used for population management has changed. On the one hand, it demonstrates that the concerns of white bodies regarding congestion are taken more seriously by the political and media mainstream than those of new migrants. On the other, it shows that COVID-19 is bringing the injustice of this approach to light, as seen in the case of the harsh lockdown imposed on public housing estates in Melbourne. Finally, it argues for population density planning that uses the 'mobility justice' framework and makes a case for developing affective capacities in addition to building infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings from interviews conducted with first and second-generation Asian Australian audience members as part of a project on the histories of television and migration in Australia. The data presented here is (a) testament to the agency of migrants in choosing what to watch beyond what might be expected on the basis of primordial markers such as ethnicity, and shows that factors such as generation of migration and education status play a significant role; and (b) differences in patterns, as well as influences between generations within a family unit. This means that the influence of cultural elements from parents or grandparents' generations, as well as the impact of technology on younger viewers appears to be more marked. Additionally, in the case of the first generation, there is a noticeable desire to watch mainstream Australian content (such as Home and Away), where this usually changes to a longing to be 'represented' for subsequent generations. These trends, while not based on a representative sample, give us an indicative glimpse into shifts in migrant media cultures, and reinforce the need for an intersectional approach to audience studies. What this analysis contributes is the importance of foregrounding the relationality of viewing practices, especially in a migrant family setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article maps the trajectory of Indian migration broadly, and specifically to Australia, to first highlight the heterogeneity of the Indian diaspora, and second, to comprehend the impact of this heterogeneity on the homeland alongside recent events involving the diaspora, such as the highly publicised attacks on Indian students in Melbourne in 2009–2010. While there is abundant literature on the history of Indian migration, as well as on diasporic identity formations in a globalising context, the Indian-Australian migrant subject is a recent subject of media and academic interest. The ‘new racisms’ perspective is used to examine the mediation of the student attack issue through the comments of ‘integrated’ Indian-Australians in a random sample of Australian media outlets. Feature articles, news items and opinion pieces appearing in the media covering the student attacks are examined for mentions of, and comments from a carefully selected group of professional Indians living in Australia who are often cast as a ‘model minority’. Conclusions are then drawn on how the remediation of India and its newly assertive commercial media offered by these comments effectively redraws a nation previously receiving limited coverage (literally and discursively) in Australia. What is significant here is not merely the ‘de-wogged’ views of a seemingly integrated minority, but also how oppositional readings (by way of diasporic cultural production) signal a way forward for the Indian diaspora's representation in Australia, as well as for its relations with both the home and host societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]