Coolabah, Nr 28, 2020, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians i 

Transnacionals / Observatory: Australian and Transnational Studies Centre, 

Universitat de Barcelona 

 
 

1 
 

Editorial 
 

 

Felicity Hand 

felicity.hand@uab.cat 

 

 

Copyright© 2020 Felicity Hand. This text may be archived 

and redistributed both in electronic form and in hard copy, 

provided that the author and journal are properly cited and 

no fee is charged, in accordance with our Creative Commons 

Licence. 

 

 

Abstract: An introduction to the special In memoriam issue of the journal dedicated to 

the memory of Geoff Davis. 

Keywords:  Geoff Davis, moving tributes, admiration 

 

I am greatly honoured to have been asked to guest edit this special issue of Coolabah to 

commemorate the life and achievements of the late Geoff Davis.  I met Geoff several 

years ago at an EACLALS conference and since that first encounter, he always 

remembered me and was ready for a convivial chat.  I am grateful to him for having 

encouraged my colleague Esther Pujolràs-Noguer and myself to publish our volume on 

South African  Indian writers in the Brill-Rodopi Cross/Cultures series that so many of 

the contributors to this issue have mentioned.  Geoff was so natural and down to earth,  

he had no airs and was the ideal person to have a drink with during a conference.  I have 

fond memories of a friendly supper we had in Brussels in the course of a conference on 

South African drama in 2017.  Last year, 2018,  I coincided with him at two excellent 

conferences, SPACLALS in February at the University of New England, Parramatta, and, 

thanks to his encouragement again, the 44th Annual African Literature Association 

Conference in Washington DC.  As I had seen and chatted to him twice that year I was 

absolutely taken aback when I heard about his death.  He seemed to be larger than life 

and now, having read all the wonderful tributes that colleagues and friends have submitted 

to the journal, I realise what a great scholar and human being Geoff Davis was.  I feel 

extremely privileged to have made his acquaintance. 

This special issue begins with a homage from three professors from the University of 

Barcleona, home of the journal Coolabah and is followed by fifteen contributions from 

fellow scholars and personal friends, all of which are at the same time moving and funny 

– some are really hilarious - as Geoff was anything but the typical academic who takes 

himself too seriously.   I have arranged the contributions in strict alphabetical order as 

they are all exceptional documents on an exceptional man.   I am grateful to Geoff’s 

widow Mrs. Ingrid Davis for allowing us to reproduce the photographs, which show his 

vitality and bonhomie as well as his love of our postcolonial world.   

mailto:felicity.hand@uab.cat


Coolabah, Nr 28, 2020, ISSN 1988-5946, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians i 

Transnacionals / Observatory: Australian and Transnational Studies Centre, 

Universitat de Barcelona 

 
 

2 
 

Bionote: Felicity Hand is senior lecturer in the English Department of the Autonomous 
University of Barcelona.  She teaches post-colonial literature and history and culture of 

Britain and the U.S.  She has published articles on various Indian Ocean writers including 

M.G.Vassanji,  Abdulrazak Gurnah, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown  and Lindsey Collen. She is 

co-head of the research group Ratnakara  http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/ratnakara  which 

explores the literatures and cultures of the South West Indian Ocean.   At present the 

group is working on community life writing.  Felicity is also the editor of the electronic 

journal Indi@logs. Spanish Journal of India Studies http://revistes.uab.cat/indialogs 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/ratnakara
http://revistes.uab.cat/indialogs