History of South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies is sponsored by the South Asian Studies Association of Australia (SASAA), which was founded in 1969 by academics attending a conference, at the ANU (Australian National University), of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science (then the peak body representing academe in the country).

Prime movers behind the initiative for a journal, which bore fruit with the publication of issue No.1 in August 1971, included Ravinder Kumar, Marjorie Jacobs, Hugh Owen, Jim Masselos, Geoff Bolton, Oscar Spate and Ian Catanach from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand (NZ being initially included in the orbit of the Association). Hugh Owen of the University of Western Australia became the first editor and continued in that role until the end of 1980. A much loved figure, Owen died after a short illness in 1987, aged 54.

An editorial note in the first issue suggested that the journal would ‘continue to give considerable prominence to articles of a historical nature’, but the next editor, Don Ferrell of La Trobe University, Melbourne, flagged a change in editorial policy, indicating that the journal would henceforward seek submissions ‘from all disciplines relating to the geographical area of South Asia’. This remains the policy today.

Ferrell left in 1983 and was replaced by S. Arasaratnam from the University of New England at Armidale, NSW, which remained the journal’s home for the next nineteen years, for most of which the journal was overseen by Arasaratnam’s colleague, Howard Brasted. By this time the journal had moved to two issues a year and from 1993 this regime was augmented by the introduction of one guest-edited special issue each year, a practice which also continues. In 2002 Ian Copland of Monash University replaced Brasted and the journal moved to Melbourne. In 2011 a handover phase was commenced which will result in Kama Maclean of the University of New South Wales becoming the journal’s sixth and first female editor in 2012.

Style Sheet

A detailed Style Sheet for the journal can be obtained from Ms. Vivien Seyler: Vivien.Seyler@monash.edu

Support the organisation that supports you

The South Asian Studies Association of Australia (SASA) represents South Asianists as their professional body in Australia and speaks for their interests in the Asian Studies Association of Australia. Annual SASA membership comes at a very modest price. It also includes three issues of South Asia a year (increasing to four issues annually in 2012).

→ Download the Membership Form

South Asia: The Journal of South Asian Studies Back Issues

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As a member of the South Asian Studies Association of Australia, you are entitled to free online access to the journal South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, including content that is only available online.

Additionally, articles published on iFirst, Taylor and Francis’s pre-publication facility, are available online up to six months prior to hard copy publication.