Introduction

This issue of Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies is the product of a ‘Fear and Loathing’ themed conference held at The University of Western Australia 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 research students that engaged with the concepts of ‘fear’ and ‘loathing’ in relation to the humanities and social sciences. In drafting the Call for Papers, members of the Editorial Collective hoped to receive submissions that engaged with contemporary and/or historical debates around fear and loathing, and which addressed and/or explored a series of questions: how (or why) does fear materialise, is it contingent on loathing, or can the two exist separately? Presenters (who travelled from around Australia to converge at UWA) were encouraged to reflect, in particular, on the discourses of fear and loathing in relation to gender and sexuality, stigma, religion, anthropology, popular culture, narratives of the self and social and immigration policy.

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