Essays by Ghassan Hage

Author

Jane Chen
October 07, 2025

Hello!

Firstly — sending lots of kindness and love today. I hope we are finding ways to hold grief and rage for each other.

As we careen towards the end of the year, I’m assuming that many of us [for example, me] are run down, a little stretched, being harassed for a first, complete thesis draft by Christmas. I’m also desperate to clear my TBR pile and close out some of the half-read books that have been sitting on my desk for months, if not years, now. Lol.

So, here’s me inviting you to help me finish up The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism, a chunky volume of writings by Ghassan Hage. In particular, I’d love to read ii) Analysing Multiculturalism today and ii) Zionists on the Beach — two essays from his later writings. I’m hoping they will be manageably short, yet [unfortunately] befitting of the times.

From the publisher:

The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism brings together some of the most important and sought-after works by one of Australia’s leading anthropologists and cultural critics: Ghassan Hage.

This groundbreaking collection features the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Hage’s seminal publication, White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society, and the twentieth anniversary edition of Hage’s follow-up publication, Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for Hope in a Shrinking Society. Along with a compendium of Hage’s later writings, The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the complexities of modern-day race politics on the unceded lands of a settler colonial society.

— Sweatshop Literacy Movement Inc.

If you are interested in joining me, hit reply from your inbox, or give this post a like if you’re on web. I’ll send you an email in late November, with details about a chat in the first week of December. We’ll keep it online as we did for Round 1!

You can access this chapter, or the entire book, via:

  • Sweatshop, Western Sydney’s literacy movement for culturally and racially marginalised communities

  • An independent bookstore. October 11, this Saturday, is Love Your Bookshop Day — so please show your local faves some love ❤️ 

  • A local / university library (City of Melbourne seems to have lots of copies!)

  • Me, if you’d just like the PDFs of the relevant chapter.

Feel free to message or email me with any questions, wherever you are used to contacting me. You’re welcome to share this with any friends who might be interested, too! If you are reading this from your inbox, you can hit reply and it will still reach me.

Jane xxx