NEBULA: A Journal of Multidisciplinary Scholarship ISSN-1449 7751

This, the final issue of Nebula’s sixth year, 2009, marks the end of what has been a big year for us. The Journal was recognised by the Australian Research Council as an 'A' ranking journal, and is currently being archived in databases throughout the world. Whatsmore, our pool of international contributors grows larger with time, just as a nebula in space might do prior to that period of coalescence around a centre of gravity--an axis of attractions. As we look at the essays collected together for this issue,  we reflect on the ways in which the term ‘interdisciplinarity’ is often used in the academy, but the practice of true interdisciplinarity can be a difficult one in a context of universities divided into departments and schools, research centres and potentially limiting agendas. Some of humanity's most prolific intellectuals pre-date the modern university systems and in their pursuits and endeavours one glimpses an intellectual and scholarly practice capable of drawing on a variety of systems of thought and knowledge. I am particularly reminded here of the Arabo-Islamic intellectuals of the medieval period, al -Jaheth, al-Kindi and an endless list of others so perfectly capable of integrating scientific methodology with critical analysis, medicine with history, geography with ethnographic enquiry. To these scholars, the practice of scholarship was a means to an end of advancing their knowledge of their environs.  From its outset, Nebula sought to offer not only an interdisciplinary approach to academic publication, but a multidisciplinary one. As we look at the essays assembled in this issue, we are proud to see that it encompasses a wealth of disciplines, as well as those works that sit in the liminal spaces between such categories.  It is our greatest pleasure to present to you the final issue of 2009 and look forward to 2010.

Rebecca Beirne & Samar Habib
Editors
Australian Nebula Collective