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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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...

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...

Conflict, Disease and Community

As the article that Sara shared with us said, we should not turn coronavirus into an “imaginary war”. However, I do think the societal effects of disease and war bear some similarities. Siniša Malešević’s reading discussed how internal and external conflict are often...

You and I, We Could Start Something

Wherein I help you cause violence.

Art’s Appeal to Humanity

Humans, as a species, are a peculiar one at that. A species overly aware of their own mortality and place in the universe, consequently bent upon obsessive overthinking, and because of this we’ve found ways to fabricate our own reality in a harsh world. We’re...

The Conflict Between Ignorance and Knowledge

Art schol has expanded my perspective of my degree. It allows me to chew on the concepts introduced, and analyse them in a Sara-Esque, conflict-driven way. This is particularly true of my learnings in Maori History and Law.   ‘Conflict’ has multiple definitions,...

DISCLAIMER: Inspired by False Events

I love documentaries. Simple, narrated story-lines which require minimal attention from the viewer. They provide a fantastic (and frankly much needed) escape from everyday life. It's so easy to chill in bed with a laptop and binge an entire series, being able to relax...

Frightening Databases

I respect that Erin Griffey and Victoria Munn had researched a topic that they are passionate about, even though they knew it was not going to be anything easy. Covering beauty is such a vast topic, with body ideals, makeup and skincare being around for hundreds of...

External signifiers of femininity on war machines…

Thought you might find this interesting in the light of our adventures with Christina Aguilera on Monday....Think about the nature of these "pinups" and a warning many of them are more ...well you'll see. They are explicit - and were painted on aeroplanes....

We may be locked down but we can still pudding like it’s 1944!

Thought this was a neat connection to ideas about scarcity and the way war (and our current situation) might impact food. AND there’s a recipe! Might also inspire some memory project ideas?...

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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