My own account of the US-centrism in the field of liturgical studies could begin with a single question: Why Australia? That was the question I was routinely asked as I prepared to leave the US-side of the Global North for one of the North's southern (if contested) outposts to pursue a doctorate in liturgical and practical theology. After all, the Australian scholars of liturgy I knew went the other way (or perhaps to Europe)-including more than one I met at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in the 1990s. Those fellow travelers went to the likes of Notre Dame or Catholic University to then return to the Antipodes, US doctorate in hand. I got the sense that if you were Australian and really wanted to make an academic career, best come to the States for credentials. Why Australia? After two decades working in various forms of religious publishing, including on liturgical topics, and having done my own previous academic work in the US in both Roman Catholic and Episcopal contexts, I wondered if I was the prisoner of some US-ian theological echo chamber. If I wanted to learn something new, much less produce new knowledge, it seemed unlikely to happen in the place I had been formed to think the way I do, complete with the presumption that if you really wanted to succeed, best come to the US. The way of a pilgrim seemed a good choice. Why Australia? Why not? Most Australians speak English after all. How hard could it be? It turned out to be a bit more complicated than I expected-usually in church!
