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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Violence and Legitimacy

It is September in the year of our Lord 2020, and the world is ending once again. In the midst of our second stay away from university, (US)America has refused to go down without more high-profile cases of police brutality, bringing the Black Lives Matter protests...

Are We Living Through A Revolution?

I must confess that when I sat down for our lecture on the French Revolution, I was confused. I felt determined to figure out how this idea of a revolution was impacting my everyday life. So, I began where most people would begin - by googling the definition of a...

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...

Cemetery Gates

I’m finding dealing with the global pandemic fallout difficult. The idea that I’m living through a challenging historical event repeats in my brain like The Smiths song 'Cemetery Gates'. These uncertain times have often made me anxious. I’m aware this is a global...

The Dominant Methodology isn’t Always Best: How Talanoa Re-framed my Education

Dr Patrick Thomsen's lecture early this semester stood out to me, for a number of reasons. His open attitude, his area of study, and, most significantly, his research method. Dr Thomsen collected his data through Talanoa, a Pasifika term derived from the words "Tatala...

Dismantling the symbols of institutionalized oppression

For the past few weeks, the visibility of the Black Lives Matter movement has increased exponentially, especially as part of the quickly circulating posts on Instagram and Facebook. Chains of names, the familiar squares captioned #BlackOutTuesday (so as not to lose...

Peace on the Stage

The last lecture on positive peace and the different columns reminded me of something I have been seeing more and more recently. Over the past few weeks there have been numerous support networks popping up around different communities I visit. One of which that has...

A Western World Paradigm

Dr Patrick Thomsen’s lecture was undoubtedly the most entertaining session I have witnessed so far. Thomsen fuelled his lecture with his past experiences, allowing us to understand his story. Building a research question from personal lived experiences was my key...

Auckland Domain

I am interested in the Auckland Domain for several reasons. Personally, it is a place which holds many dear memories for me: Befriending the swans at the pond, visiting the memorial, the museum, Wintergarden, or just going out for drinks at Wintergarden’s Café. Before...

Protected: Does War Innovate?

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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,...

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Hated in our Nations

Hated in our Nations

Spoilers  for episode 6 of season 3 of Black Mirror below.  Civilian casualties are as common as they are condemned. Numbers remind us that governments, be it democratic or authoritarian, kill large numbers of civilians as a military strategy. In his lecture, Thomas...

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Labels and Positionality

Labels and Positionality

Of all the sessions we had this year, one of the most impactful for me was Dr. Madhavi Manchi's session on research positionality. She answered a lot of the questions that I didn't know had been at the back of my mind since I started my Arts degree, the core of these...

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