cultural

SCI Researcher Nafhesa Ali is the co-author of a newly published journal article about the benefits and risks associated with working with community interviewers in social and cultural research. Together with Peter Hopkins, Raksha Pande, Claire Chambers and Richard Phillips Nafhesa Ali published the article about the benefits…

Aerial photo of Túcume in Peru, America’s largest pyramid center. Credit: Daniel Sandweiss El Nino has been a major driver of societal collapse, various catastrophes and cultural change in coastal Peru for millennia, but it isn't the only culprit. In a new study, University of Maine researchers warn against over-interpreting the role climatic change, like an El Nino event, plays in societal and cultural transition.…

At the end of this month, Homecoming—the London-via-Lagos festival and cultural hub—will be teaming up with Jameson Whiskey and streetwear giants Patta for a three-date, three-city cultural exchange built around the principle of championing artists and creatives from across Africa and taking the myriad cultures globally on their own terms.Homecoming has been running since 2017, bringing a mixture of artists from all over Africa and the diaspora over to Lagos for live performances and panels, but this year they’re…

The death of Olivia Newton-John this week was followed by an avalanche of tributes from celebrities and fans on social media. And the image accompanying most of the posts of was Newton-John as Sandy Olsson in the last scene of her signature 1978 film, Grease. Wearing tight black trousers, an off-the-shoulder black top, red mules and biker jacket, with her hair teased and a cigarette in hand, she gazes into the eyes of co-star John Travolta as Danny Zuko.Released nearly 45 years ago and set in the 1950s, Grease remains…

Credit: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Aboriginal people are 15 times more likely than other Australians to experience homelessness due to racism, dispossession of land, profound economic disadvantage and cultural oppression, according to a new report released in Canberra today. …

Since time immemorial, humans have looked to the heavens above to make sense of life below, right here on Earth. What else is out there among all the countless galaxies, stars and planets? Are we truly alone in the universe? Such questions are crucial for establishing humanity’s cosmic context and have inspired a variety of speculative answers from a wide range of philosophical and scientific traditions. Buddhists believe in different Buddhas living in different worlds. The Greek atomists also believed in the plurality of…

Credit: Routledge It has been a generation now. Long enough, Kapila Silva believes, to pronounce the "cultural landscape" approach, the broad-minded historic preservation efforts of the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO, a success. …

Since his death in 2017, Mark Fisher has reputationally ascended to the status of dissident national treasure. His work as a leftist cultural critic continues to inspire the young in particular – Fisher murals adorn Birkbeck University in London, where he used to teach – who have adopted him as one of their heroes. His books were not widely reviewed in his lifetime, however, and his influence has been a largely word-of-mouth phenomenon. Now his publisher, the tiny indie press Zero Books, is reissuing Fisher’s 2014 essay…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain For decades, studies have shown that children able to resist temptation—opting to wait for two marshmallows later rather than take one now—tend to do better on measures of health and success later in life. …

Refugees from non-English speaking backgrounds are confused about the NDIS. Credit: Nasan Esber, Author provided People with disability and their family members from non-English speaking refugee backgrounds come up against language and communication barriers when they try to access services, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).…