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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Mark Zuckerberg wants me to be sexy, and other lies I tell myself.

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...

The end, the means, and the manipulation.

While talking about international campaigns and how they work, Thomas Nash talked about there being three key things to consider; who we want to influence, how we want to influence and what we can use to influence. This short phrase really got my mental gears turning...

A Marxist Defence of Modern Conservatism

In too many ways, the Conservative label has been polarised to suit the unfolding narrative of political unrest in the Trump era.  A combination of Politics 106 lectures and a video article by the former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper provided an Enlightening...

How Victors Shape History – Napoleon’s Rise and Fall

A sweeping golden cloak, pristine military attire and commanding a white stallion while staring directly into the viewers eyes as he points his army towards victory. That is how Napoleon Bonaparte is portrayed in the famous, Napoleon Crossing the Alps painting. The...

The need to see the context of conflicts, or, Why does Team Defence Fort Two have so much lore?

When engaging with media the essential nature of context to conflicts becomes obvious as context follows conflict even when not, arguably, needed. An excellent example of this is found in Valve's Team Fortress Two which, despite the game being America's #1 war-themed...

Conflict and Denial

In the week 3 reading on Wiremu Tamihana and the Mana of Christianity, Head argued that “[h]ow Christ was reflected in the colony … rather than faithfulness to the Treaty of Waitangi, was the tool of evaluation of British rule that Māori found meaningful.” When...

Nuclear Testing and Impacts on Indigenous People

Hi Team. This came across my FB feed. One more of the travesties of colonialism. https://www.facebook.com/ABCTV/videos/288687948821354/

Age?

Jennifer Frost bought age into the spotlight. Specifically, the arbitrary nature of age in our society and how age is a social construct. In terms of politics, I have always thought about how strange it is that as young people, we are reprimanded for a lack of...

The Fine Line

There is a fine line researchers walk when it comes to bonds with participants, one that I had never really thought too much about until the session with Tracey McIntosh, Nicole Perry, Carisa Showden and Jemaima Tiatia-Seath. Although I could not make the discussion...

“This is me, Eliza Thornberry, part of your average family.”

Weirdly enough my favourite show as a kid was ‘The Wild Thornberrys’ and I would be lying if I said it didn’t change my life. It aired from 1998 to 2004 on Nickelodeon and the movie came out in 2002.  If you haven’t had the wonderful experience of watching ‘The Wild...

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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