Over the last three decades, academic and policy writing on islands has grown rapidly. To date, effort has focused on island ecologies and environments, on island heritage and culture, and on island vulnerabilities and resilience. In much of that work, characteristics such as isolation, insularity, small size, or dependency are presented uncritically and taken for granted. The Rethinking the Island series seeks to unsettle such assumptions by comprehensively investigating the range of topological and topographical characteristics that lie at the heart of the idea of 'islandness'. The books in this series work from a twin understanding that the island is central to Western conceptions of self, place, and planet, and that their idealization is upheld by strong associations between islands' materialities and their status as powerful imaginaries. Series Editors: Elaine Stratford, Godfrey Baldacchino and Elizabeth McMahon Advisory Board: Beate Ratte, University of Hamburg; Brian Roberts, Brigham Young University; Carol Farbotko, University of the Sunshine Coast; Elizabeth DeLoughrey, University of California; Eric Clark, Lund University; Ian Buchanan, University of Wollongong; Ilan Kelman, University College London; James Sidaway, National University of Singapore Jonathan Pugh; Newcastle University; Laurie Brinklow, University of Prince Edward Island; Lisa Fletcher, University of Tasmania; Michelle Ann Stephens, Rutgers University; Mimi Sheller, Drexel University; Phil Steinberg, Durham University; Stephen Pratt, University of the South Pacific; Vanessa Smith, Sydney University.