Koi te hinengaro, koi te arero, koi te mahi!
Sharp of mind, tongue, and work!
Like what we do? Find out more.
A scientific study published recently by Harley Street physician Dr. de Silva was, unfortunately, reminiscent of the topic of Erin Griffey and Victoria Munn’s research seminar “Beauty Cultures”. In this study, which left an unsurprisingly sour aftertaste, de Silva...
Research is inherently scientific, whether us Arts students would like to admit it or not. However, common-sense understandings of research are inherently based on a Western construction of “science”, thus, can scientific reasoning produce appropriate results...
What does it mean to be “of age” or to be deserving of political inclusion? Kiwis who are too young either to vote or to be taken seriously by adults often undertake actions which are quietly political anyway. For example, climate-conscious teens have started...
Erin Griffey’s research showed Renaissance women were obsessed with ‘natural beauty’, wanting clear, luminous skin, healthy hair and a slim yet curvy figure. What I found really interesting was how these feminine beauty ideals continue to remain the same for women...
Victoria Munn and Erin Griffey’s research is centralised around ideas of beauty in the Renaissance age and how the ideals, methods of beauty inform or parallel with our own understandings of beauty in 21st century in the western world. This idea of how the past could...
Patrick Thomsen’s seminar on genealogies of knowledge and the construction of research questions made me reflect on why I even want to do research. He described the complexities of the social world, such as how the several intersecting aspects of his ex-partner’s...
Research by Stephen Winter aimed to tell the stories of people who made claims of historic abuse in New Zealand state care and to investigate New Zealand’s monetary redress program. I found this research intriguing as a psychology student, but rather than...
Jennifer Frost is a researcher who is currently writing a book about the 26th amendment which allowed voting at age 18 in the United States. The inspiration behind Frost’s work was to correct the mis-interpretation of youth involvement, and people who brought about...
"[It] is not that 18-year olds are old enough to fight - it is because they are smart enough to vote." In Frost's lecture on the Youth Voting Rights Movement in America, this quote summarises Nixon's argument for lowering the voting age to 18-years old. As Frost...
The post-colonial perspective of Dr Patrick Thomsen, despite his position as a queer Pasifika man, reflects the importance of the researcher’s consideration of knowledge genealogy. Thomsen’s research seminar is a reminder of the Western gaze that is pushed upon us; of...
Victoria Munn and Erin Griffey spoke to us about beauty culture, representation and systems of knowledge. While the stories they told about culture were important, I was fascinated by how they were empowered in their research through the technology they had. Databases...
Erin Griffy and Victoria Munn: People wanting to be hot is the one constant across history. The end. But actually though, everyone is ugly, even though we're not, we still think we are from time to time. It’s some messed up, warped up, f***** up part of the...