Arts Scholars

Koi te hinengaro, koi te arero, koi te mahi!
Sharp of mind, tongue, and work!

Keep up with the latest discussions and thoughts from our Arts Scholars whānau

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On the Importance of Representative Diversity in Scholarly History

Tension between the celebration and criticism of war is advanced by motives informed by oppositely different experiences of the same shared history. Especially in a multicultural society that has been framed by colonial values, such diversity is necessary to adequately represent minority perspectives within dominant institutions.

Impacts of armed conflict

‘History is written by the victors’, is a recurring theme in  many of the blog posts that I’ve read. I have been left wondering, what happens to the narrative of rebuilding countries post war, how the destruction of infrastructure, has ongoing effects on communities....

Who Am I? A short, self-indulgent meditation on my internal struggle.

The past weeks have been a bit rough for me. The lockdown has stifled my self-esteem quite severely, and it’s left me floating without motivation or imperative. I did, however, find the energy to attend the Arts Scholars forum on power and inequality in research. I...

Protected: Does War Innovate?

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We can’t breathe

2020 strikes again the world reacts to the lynching of George Floyd; Fuel to the flame that’s been growing with every murder. In the last few weeks there has been unprecedented publicity of the mistreatment of indigenous, Black and other minority groups that continues...

Seasons change but people don’t, honey; suggestions on changing the unchanging human race

It’s not a secret political, racial, cultural conflict has been occurring for centuries. In the foray of my first 5 weeks of academia, I have never been more keenly aware of the recurring patterns of humanity. Xenophobia is at large in moments of historical importance...

Age through sex: considering masculinity, maturity, and music

Jennifer Frost’s response to the predictably brilliant question posed by Antonia Grant about how the reasoning that fuelled support for the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – that citizens too young to vote were old enough to fight – applied to women – led me...

The Remains Of The Day As Context For World War Two

I recently watched the film The Remains Of The Day. Although  my love for Hugh Grant served as my motivation to do so . It struck me as a possible film within which to explore our theme, conflict in context.  The Remains Of The Day follows Stevens, a  devout Butler in...

Less is more, in research especially

As a researcher, it is often easy to lose your goal during research as you become exposed to more knowledge. The staggering amount of sources that are available for study can at times seem overwhelming, and against this vastness, it is unsurprising that researchers...

Sexual Identity in a World That Already Seems to Know You

Dr Patrick S. Thomsen’s research about the evolution of the sexual identity of Korean men in America was incredibly revelationary. Thomsen’s work was spring boarded by identifying the intrinsic flaws in the Cass Homosexual Identity Model, commonly relied upon in the...

Addressing the Redress

Dr Stephen Winter's research into the process of redressing the abuse suffered by those in the care system in New Zealand was fascinating to look at. For a long time now, governmental care systems like orphanages have been something that I've been interested in,...

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Research is personal.

I've always been taught to keep as many confounding variables out of the data as possible - including myself, my views, thoughts, and opinions. But Dr Hirini Kaa and Patrick Thomsen told a different story. Their personal experiences guided them to their research...

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Lived Positionality

Dr Patrick Thomsen's lecture on examining the struggles of gay men in Korea through the lens of a pacific lens was quite the ride. The past year has instilled in me a curiosity about how varied viewpoints can be used to analyse different topics. I personally have...

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Collecting Notions

Collecting Notions

For a presentation last year, I researched Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey". You might also have heard of it as the "monomyth". If not, here's a simplified summary: the Hero's Journey is a sequence of plot points, which are said to loosely match every story we...

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Obscure War

Obscure War

We are very fortunate to be able to talk about war in theoretics. We are able to keep war at an antiseptic distance from ourselves, avoiding discussion of the “nasties” of conflict and, for the most part, live completely detached from the effects of war and conflict....

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History A, History B

Recently, while I was listening to a series of lectures on Herodotus, the lecturer distinguished between what she called History definition A and History definition B*. She also briefly mentioned the confusion caused when people do not realise which definition they...

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Perception

Perception

As Halloween recently passed, my mind shifts to the commodification of culture. Nowadays you can purchase anything from toy guns to real guns, and murdering video games to watching WW2 in colour. (Greatest Events of WW2 in Color - Netflix). I feel less as if war is in...

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Where do I go from here?

The first day of Arts scholars, I remember being perplexed when Sara brought in a Barbie in US army garb to discuss the gendered dimensions of war.    I called myself a feminist back then (and I still am). But it wasn’t really grounded in any sense of “academia,”...

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Politicians and the Media

Our discussions surrounding positionality have been great and allowed me to have a lot of self reflection. Following  Tova O’Brien’s recent interview with Jami-Lee Ross and the large positive reception it’s had, my thoughts turned to  positionality within the media. ...

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