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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The Power of Peaceful Protests

When Joe gave his lecture a few weeks it brought up some interesting ideas, but I didn’t imagine just how relevant it would become a few weeks later. With the help of the internet and other technology, protests against systemic racism have spread across the US and the...

Separating Strength and Sexuality: How We Interpret Women in Power

Historically, images of female power and sexual agency were incompatible. From goddesses to servicewomen, regulation of sexuality counteracted …

A reflection on food, productivity and Positive Peace during quarantine…

Over the last few weeks, I have watched from my screen (and the sixth-floor window of my apartment building) as people have improvised and slowly adapted to our new reality, in a range of creative and exciting ways. Charles Allen’s lecture on Positive Peace made me...

Seasons change but people don’t, honey; suggestions on changing the unchanging human race

It’s not a secret political, racial, cultural conflict has been occurring for centuries. In the foray of my first 5 weeks of academia, I have never been more keenly aware of the recurring patterns of humanity. Xenophobia is at large in moments of historical importance...

Truth is Uncomfortable

Research by Stephen Winter aimed to tell the stories of people who made claims of historic abuse in New Zealand state care and to investigate New Zealand’s monetary redress program.    I found this research intriguing as a psychology student, but rather than...

An Ever Changing Song: An Anthem!

ANTHEMS OF CHANGE   What’s in an anthem? If you plugged the word ‘anthem’ into Google, you would perhaps one of the driest definitions I’ve seen yet: “A rousing or uplifting song identified with a particular group, body, or cause”. Coming first from religious...

On peering at the world through a microscope

As a student of Global Studies and Sociology, my learning often centres on people and social structures. This involves a fair amount of generalising and theorising about people whom I have no lived experiences with. For example, when we were asked to make a...

Non-Historians Give Historiography a Go

In addition to conflict, this year, I have picked up on another overarching theme which seems to be intertwined with conflict and equally important to pick up on. This has been our exploration of historiography. I feel this theme has stretched throughout the course....

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...

The Eye of the Beholder.

Our second research seminar that was delivered by Erin Griffey and Victoria Munn explored beauty ideals from the Renaissance and how this might be reflected in art produced at the time. Their work involved translating historical beauty recipes from this period and...

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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