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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War in Film: A Look at Cinema’s Evolving Relationship with Conflict

If I asked you to picture a war movie, what is the first thing you envision? It could be the gritty realism of Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front. You may picture a class of naive young men thrust into a desolate wasteland strewn with wire and bodies....

“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...

‘The chaste and the unchaste’ – Virginia Woolf’s and Katherine Mansfield’s heated relationship

Friendships are complicated, full of conflict, love and, hopefully, lots of fun. They encouraged the sexual escapades of Percy Shelley and Lord Byron and the riotous drinking excursions of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tragically the relationships between literary women have been side-lined …

How Are We Talking About Racism?

A fair number of our lectures have had strong links to the topics of racism and colonialism, something that makes a lot of sense given their place as a local conflict in Aotearoa. Admittedly, these lectures likely stand out the most to me because of my lack of...

“Gays are not real”

Dr Patrick Thomsen's research was my favourite out of all senior researchers. Solely because it was inspired by unexpected life experience, and it reinforces the idea that every, single, little, thing in our lives can become a topic of research. And these researches...

Quiet Political Acts

What does it mean to be “of age” or to be deserving of political inclusion? Kiwis who are too young either to vote or to be taken seriously by adults often undertake actions which are quietly political anyway.  For example, climate-conscious teens have started...

What’s the Tea?

Since being stuck at home, I’ve been drinking an excessive amount of tea. Somewhere around my hundredth cup of the day, I started thinking about how strange it was that such a warm, friendly drink could be the center of so many global conflicts. Tea-related violence...

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...

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...

The Path of an Inside Outsider

My cultural identity has always stood at the forefront of my research interests. But I had neglected to consider the potential of it also becoming a barrier. Throughout the discussion, I had resonated with Dr Jemaima Tiatia-Seath when she recalled the challenges you...
We can’t breathe

We can’t breathe

2020 strikes again the world reacts to the lynching of George Floyd; Fuel to the flame that’s been growing with every murder. In the last few weeks there has been unprecedented publicity of the mistreatment of indigenous, Black and other minority groups that continues...

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Technological… Advancements?

The Greater Good? Sally Angelson and Thomas Nash showed us that technological advancements have fuelled many conflicts in human history, as well as conveniences. It’s helped people protect their homes and the poor and vulnerable. It’s helped to provide food, water and...

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Revolution and Racism

Revolution and Racism

I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of American history is sketchy at best. Joe Zizek’s lecture featuring the American Revolution truly brought this to light for me. Introduced to this Revolutionary War by the children’s book series, Judy Moody, Zizek’s...

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Framing BLM

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the murder of George Floyd have united the world against systemic racism and police brutality. Like many historical events, the framing of revolutionary movements is important in preserving the authentic message. Joe’s lecture...

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Conflict in America and South Africa

As a first generation Kiwi, my parents grew up in South Africa with racial segregation, and it wasn’t something we ever talked about. It’s only now that we’re having these discussions; something that is crucial in a time of social change. While talking to my parents...

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The Value of Research

Dr Thomsen’s seminar showed me that research, regardless of its specificity, does not exist in a vacuum. Initially, his research on the sexual identity of Korean men living in Seattle seemed abstract to me, in grounding his study in his lived experiences and those of...

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