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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Conflict in modern societies

I’m a scientist at heart, and something I find interesting is that we believe we’re ‘pacifists’ compared to other organisms. One of our focus questions this semester was that all animals except humans have conflict for resources - why are we determined to prove...

The Importance of Youth Voting

I was very intrigued by Jennifer Frost's lecture on the history of the 26th amendment and the voting rights of young people. Historically this related heavily to comparing how men at age 18 could be drafted for war, and women could legally marry. So if they could hold...

A Modern French Revolution

In our lecture on the French revolution, one of the questions was why should we care about the history of revolutionary violence? This really resonated with me, as a white woman from South Africa and as a watcher of the protests in America. There has been no...

Framing BLM

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the murder of George Floyd have united the world against systemic racism and police brutality. Like many historical events, the framing of revolutionary movements is important in preserving the authentic message. Joe’s lecture...

Positionality and Polarisation in American Politics

I had never realised how vast the qualities used to define your identity could be until we talked about positionality in class. How certain experiences, family legacies, and interests are stacked upon one another and used to position ourselves in the world. Now...

Revolutionary Violence and our Modern Identity

At the end of his session, Joe Zizek posed the question, “how important is remembering (or forgetting) revolutionary violence to our modern identities?” following his discussion of collective violence leading to revolution. This question connects directly to both how...

Perhaps food is the ultimate weapon?

Anyone see a preoccupation here? I think I need to do some of my own research on these lines. But in the meantime: From Nelson's apple to beef wellington: how war changes the way we eat. Zoe Williams, The Guardian 27 February 2020

CANS

How do military and civilian food culture mimic each other? This post is just a train of thoughts that go in many directions, but may also trigger you to think or extend these ideas. However, I would like to start with canned food. As we know from the lecture, it was...

So You Wanna Be a Global Citizen?

It’s not so hard- and you can do it from your couch!

Conflicts in the Media

I always wondered how conflicts were shown in the media overseas. This is because I used to watch the news and think about why we only got to see a certain perspective of the conflict. It usually is seen to make your own country look really good or make them look like...

Translation is Positional

Translation is a simple process, right? Take a word in one language, change it into the other language, repeat for the whole text. A tried and true method, except... obviously not, please don't translate things like that. Not even a closely related language, like...

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The World of Fantasy

The World of Fantasy

*content warning* mentions of sexual assault   After Brooke and Hela mentioned Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games during their (amazing!) presentations, it got me rethinking some of the books that I loved growing up, and the increasingly problematic aspects of...

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Like a Peacock

It's been a long year. The world has changed in so many ways in only a few months, yet things are still oddly the same. Time has blurred. Things that have happened only a week ago feel like old hat. Movements have progressed rapidly, and at the same time achieved...

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Tissues, please.

What does it mean to “weep in the archives”? For me, it means connecting emotionally with the history that is - or isn’t - documented. It means expressing empathy with a community or a person separated from you by a vast expanse of time. It means recognising that...

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Rogue One: A Non-Skywalker Story

Rogue One: A Non-Skywalker Story

The first time I watched Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it was as a casual moviegoer along for the ride. I sat there just soaking in the action and cast chemistry and left little space for thinking about theme or cinematography. Four years and one video essay later,...

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Personal Histories

Personal experiences are a vital part of history. My memory project – interviewing my Grandmother about her memories of war – raised some interesting questions for me about different perspectives and memories of events. I have done a few research projects and...

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An infrastructure of feeling

An infrastructure of feeling

War and conflict are too impactful to be forgotten, even if they aren’t talked about and burrow down into the subconscious. In my memory project, I looked at this idea in relation to my family’s experience of World War Two and explored the consequences of silencing...

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