By Penny Bailey, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, The University of Queensland
On January 10 1926, Yanagi Sōetsu and the potters Hamada Shōji and Kawai Kanjirō sat talking excitedly late into the night at a temple on Mt Kōya, in Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture.
They were debating how best to honour the beauty of simple, everyday Japanese crafts. Out of that conversation came a new word, mingei, and a plan to found The Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo. Later, Yanagi would describe what emerged that night as “a new standard of beauty”.
A century on, Yanagi’s ideas feel strikingly…
(Full Story)
|
By Rod McNaughton, Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Globally, specialised small firms are demonstrating the power of being better, not bigger. NZ could capitalise on the trend if it adjusts some long-held assumptions.
(Full Story)
|
By Mark Stevens, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Adelaide University
Cyrille D’Haese, Entomologist, Sorbonne Université
In virtually every piece of land on Earth – from near the summit of Mount Everest to Antarctica to caves nearly 2,000 metres underground – live tiny critters that have shaped the health of our planet for hundreds of millions of years.
They are known as springtails – an ancient group of invertebrates that evolved along with mosses and lichens dating back to more…
(Full Story)
|
By Chaya Kasif, PhD Candidate; Assyriologist, Macquarie University
Today, trans people face politicisation of their lives and vilification from politicians, media and parts of broader society.
But in some of history’s earliest civilisations, gender-diverse people were recognised and understood in a wholly different way.
As early as 4,500 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, for instance, gender-diverse people held important roles in society with professional titles.…
(Full Story)
|
By Matteo Vergani, Associate Professor and Director of the Tackling Hate Lab, Deakin University
What we currently know about antisemitism in Australia is pieced together from a fragmented body of information produced by community organisations, researchers and law enforcement. And it is largely interpreted and translated to the public through news reporting.
Through this reporting, Australians have learned that organised criminal…
(Full Story)
|
By Kai Schweizer, PhD Candidate in Youth Mental Health, The University of Western Australia; The Kids Research Institute
Those in the LGBTQIA+ community have much higher rates of eating disorders than the general population, especially trans and non-binary people.
(Full Story)
|
By Christopher Laurikainen Gaete, PhD Candidate, Wollongong Isotope Geochronology Laboratory, University of Wollongong
Anthony Dosseto, Professor of Biogeochemistry, University of Wollongong
Scott Hocknull, Principal Research Fellow Applied Palaeontology & Palaeotourism, CQUniversity Australia
Today, rock wallabies rarely stray far from the safety of their rocky shelters. But the fossil record tells a very different story.
(Full Story)
|
By Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Sachinthanee Dissanayake, PhD Candidate, University of Wollongong
Dr Kumar Biswas, Lecturer, University of Wollongong
Dr Mario Fernando, Professor of Management and Director, Centre for Cross-Cultural Management, University of Wollongong
It may feel like a complex, often unspoken emotion. But pleasure at the misfortune of others is common in business settings.
(Full Story)
|
By Giacomo Bianchino, Adjunct associate, University of Sydney
The tension between the novelistic attention to psychology and detail and the epic tendency to breadth of scale and form makes – and unmakes – this book.
(Full Story)
|
By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania
We’re not going to be able to stop climate instability and associated dangerous wildfire weather, so we need to adapt.
(Full Story)
|