Fear and Loathing: Introduction to Volume 20.2
Steven de Haer and Colleen Harmer
The University of Western Australia
Australians live in an environment where discourses of fear and loathing
pervade our national conversations. This discursiveness operates at a number of
levels: it is both individually internalised and articulated in local and national
settings. This politics of fear was at its most potent in the months leading to (and
followingǼ the ŘŖŗř federal election, where “ustraliansȂ anxieties about the security
of national borders and (latent) fear of the ȁOtherȂ, were fed by politicians seeking
political advantage and electoral success. The production of government-authorised
materials, aimed at deterring would-be asylum seekers from seeking refuge in
Australia, can be read as a low point in this debate. Produced ostensibly for an
international market (though played domestically for political effect), the graphic for
the campaign (a rickety vessel stranded at sea, pictured below a message from the
government to asylum seekers - ȁYou WonȂt ”e Settled In “ustraliaȂǼ alerted the
Australian public to a change in policy, and simultaneously appealed to our most
base instincts. It was in this climate (of fear and loathing) that the idea for a themed
volume of the journal took effect.
© Department of Immigration and Border
Protection, Australia, 2013.
This issue of Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies is the product of a
ȁFear and LoathingȂ themed conference held at The University of Western “ustralia
on Friday 20th June 2014. Organised by the Limina Editorial Collective, and
supported by the Institute of Advanced Studies, the conference sought papers from
postgraduate and early career researchers that engaged with the concepts of ȁfearȂ