Travelling to a utopia: Auroville, India

Do you believe that a society can exist with perfect human unity? Well, I’ve just returned from a community founded on this intention. My month in India was one of the most challenging of my life and one of the most transformative. Auroville was founded in 1968 by the Mother (inspired by Sri Aurobindo) as…Read More

Quality journalism in the digital age: the evolution and opportunities for innovations

A research project by Eve Cogan with the University of Technology Sydney. Introduction and Research Focus Recent literature confirms what those working in journalism have recently experienced: the rise of digital media has irreversibly changed the industry. Over 3000 Australian journalism jobs have been lost since 2011 (Dawson et al., 2020), revealing that the business…Read More

A hopeful ecofeminist ecology in Mad Max: Fury Road

Studying culture at the University of Technology Sydney gave me a chance to explore this iconic Australian dystopia film with regard to some of my favourite topics: environmentalism and feminism. If you don’t mind the academic language, hopefully, you find it as fascinating as I did! Applying an ecofeminist critique to contemporary science-fiction texts can…Read More

Who Gives a Crap about Toilet Paper?

The complex system of toilet paper production and consumption is not something most people consider, but it has a monumental impact on our health, wellbeing and environment. The average toilet paper roll uses half a kilo of wood and 140 litres of water (Statista, 2018). What’s more, each Australian uses 88 rolls of toilet paper…Read More

Cultural Identity in Films of the Indigenous Pacific

Amid rising prominence of the Indigenous-focused Fourth Cinema, the people of Aotearoa and Pasifika have become influential contributors, creating films that not only provide critical perspectives on their postcolonial identities, but also celebrate their cultures and differences. This depth is evident in the film Vai (2019), which was collaboratively directed by nine Pasifika women, and Taika Waititi’s Hunt…Read More

Women, Warfare and Whispers in the Wind

Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow (2016) Babak Anvari’s debut feature film Under the Shadow (2016) is a spine-chilling allegory of the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, which powerfully adds nuance to the ways women are represented on global screens. Anvari initially faced resistance when he pitched this Farsi-language script, set in Tehran during the War of the…Read More

Hong Kong’s Post-Colonial Identity through Cinema

Almost everyone has enjoyed a kung fu movie, and the films of Bruce Lee are often considered classics, but studying global cinema has made me realise there are more to these thrilling actions than meets the eye. Films can give rich insight into places and identities, and I really enjoyed discovering this through a close…Read More

ABC’s Mystery Road: an Engaging Depiction of Aboriginal Identity in Contemporary Australia

I found myself checking flight prices from Sydney to Western Australia after watching ABC’s new outback drama series Mystery Road. I wanted to fly right into the rich culture and brutally beautiful landscape captured on screen. The series reinvigorated the western genre, adding contemporary Indigenous Australian perspectives and the  breathtaking desert-meets-ocean setting. This collaboration of…Read More