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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“Hey Siri – Define Beauty”

Has the definition of beauty changed due to new technologies and resources? During early modern Europe, “Recipe books” were used as a step by step guide to reach beauty ideals. Dr Erin Griffey sourced over 400 recipes that focused on complexion alone. The extensive...

Quentin Tarantino: The Art v Artist Conundrum

When I was 16, my dad introduced me to Tarantino’s Kill Bill. It felt revolutionary.    From then on, I was hooked on Tarantino films, both as father-daughter bonding and because they fueled my love of film.   But, like all good things, my love for...

Gender and War

When we talk about war, so often it is in terms of the male soldier or male head-of-state. When women are mentioned, it is often in the lumped phrase ‘women and children’. As we’ve progressed through this term, it has left me wondering: where are the women?  Simply,...

Diving deep

During Victoria Munn and Erin Griffey's research seminar, they discussed beauty in the likes of Renaissance paintings, reflecting the ever-growing importance of beauty within our society. Their work highlighted the importance of researchers developing a comprehensive...

*women* and my positionality on feminism

Being a women (as I’m sure we can all agree) is hard enough as it is. Now, with growing globalisation and ‘modernity’, we get to grapple with the conflicts of living our lives and other women living theirs. Of course, there is no one way to live life but trying to...

Decision making and Subjectivity

Decisions are power. The decision-maker has agency over the representation, framing, analysis and conclusions drawn from their research. The process of decision making is abstracting - from broad, raw data, into a selection of options. The data is the input and the...

Passion and Practicality

Something I appreciated immensely about Erin and Victoria's session was their ability to give such direct advice when presenting a somewhat abstract topic. Erin holds a passion for her beauty works that has allowed her to structure a clear and functional research...

The Western Gaze

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...

Pretty People Get the Job

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...

Bringing research closer to home

Okay, let me be honest with you for a hot minute... Sitting back and watching these guest speakers discuss their research journey throughout this semester has felt a little daunting to me. I have found myself thinking throughout this process, “how the heck am I ever...

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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