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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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...

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...

The Evolution of Fairy Tales

  For centuries, the whimsy of fairy tales has been ingrained into childhoods. They are stories which have been told over and over with intentions to provide entertainment and hope. I still remember dressing up like a princess with friends for birthdays or waving...

Where’s the blood?

As I’ve been reading more about war, I keep on returning to that question posed in our very first lecture: where’s the blood? Going through the long lists of facts and statistics, it becomes easy to slip into this comfortable niche of studying conflict in a detached,...

Empathy for Debate and Positionality

When we engage in debate, it is important to acknowledge that our emotional responses come from our experiences and our origins. This reveals the need for empathy in understanding our differences not as an objective truth which only one has discovered but as co-existent interpretations that deserve understanding and compromise if we are ever to diverge from the hostility that seems to be the focus of much modern political discourse.

Beauty’s ‘Golden Ratio’

A scientific study published recently by Harley Street physician Dr. de Silva was, unfortunately, reminiscent of the topic of Erin Griffey and Victoria Munn’s research seminar “Beauty Cultures”. In this study, which left an unsurprisingly sour aftertaste, de Silva...

On the Importance of Representative Diversity in Scholarly History

Tension between the celebration and criticism of war is advanced by motives informed by oppositely different experiences of the same shared history. Especially in a multicultural society that has been framed by colonial values, such diversity is necessary to adequately represent minority perspectives within dominant institutions.

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...

Navigating Confidentially When Gathering Information

Dr. Stephen Winters' lecture on monetary redress was very thought-provoking, and in particular, the strains monetary redress programs face in protecting their applicants' privacy. Dr. Winters highlighted the difficulty of contacting applicants, let alone obtaining...

War! What is it good for? A hype as national anthem, for one thing

In the very first reading we did for this class, there was a quote from the German historian Treitschke, saying, “without war, no State could be. All those we know of arose through war.” This is an intriguing idea, and I wanted to see if I could find some concrete...

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...

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The Wicked Witch of the West

The Wicked Witch of the West

After Jeremy Armstrong’s lecture, something that stuck with me was his initial description of Eastern vs. Western war during his recorded lecture. From what I understand, this initial 10 minutes of his talk was a presentation of the ‘stereotypes’ that these terms...

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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...

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When does the war actually end?

When does the war actually end?

  It is easy to think of war as a past tense. While we aren’t exposed first hand to current situations like war in Afghanistan, we can recognize this horror across media and news updates. Then we can turn the tv off and look away. We don’t need to look any...

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The Call for Duty!

When looking at the various depictions of war that we’ve seen thus far – in art, literature, music and even sand -, there is a notable exception: the humble videogame. Ever since rising to prominence in the 1980s, videogames have been seen entertaining millions, but...

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