Welcome to GR Online, a series of short-form articles that take aim at the moving target of contemporary culture as it’s whisked along the guide rails of innovations in digital media, globalisation and late-stage capitalism.
Love virtually
The shift we’ve made to finding lovers online is nothing short of profound, and it’s a trend observable across every age group in Australia. Even the oldies appear to have taken to it with zeal. As the digitisation of our lives proceeds unabated, the use of digital platforms as a legitimate way to find a prospective mate has embedded itself in our culture.
Me, we and them
The roots of the digital change movement lie in ideas about audience persuasion that date back to Aristotle: that a combination of pathos, ethos and logos – the mixture of a credible hero, an emotive, empathetic story and a logical argument – is what’s needed to convince an audience to take action.
I, cyborg
Cyborg is a scary word. It is associated with science fiction, but despite the condescension with which some mainstream authors view the genre, it provides a useful way to explore the unintended consequences of how our paths into the future interact with human character and frailties
Cows come home
In this creative representation of the chatter that is social media, Annie Zaidi illuminates both the shortcomings and the insights that make up the underlying discourse of Indian political conversation…
Outlier
The animals come. Reminding you to be present, respectful, alert, not lost in the pointlessness of past or future failures. And, as in geography we know we are always and everywhere ‘in the field’, country is also everywhere, not just the bush.
Pulling down fences
The son of an activist, Munro Jr traces his ‘goolie’ – the fire in his belly – to his childhood on the New Moree Mission and his unfaltering awareness of the racial undertones that infiltrate a town such as Moree. It was indeed the only local government area in Australia that had enshrined racial segregation in its local by-laws…
One true note?
Language, like the wind, is hard to pin down. It relies on movement for its existence, as we rely on breath for life. The sound of language also often reminds me of water. It forms, runs, braids, pools, knocks, rustles, rushes, flows… Like a river it is always moving, even when it appears to be still.
Moments in Vanuatu
Australian students live in the South Pacific and yet so much of Australia’s scholarship, and the daily deluge of our news and media, points us to places that are far distant – often Europe or North America. This study tour aimed to disrupt these flows of information and ideas from the north, and place our students here, where we all live, in the south.
Pride and punishment
Common understanding and usage of the word ‘trauma’ often confuses trauma with distress. Though trauma is often distressing, the two should not be conflated. Rather, trauma denotes an experience or event that has not been properly registered or processed due to its overwhelming of the nervous system
Fifty years and five hundred miles
This is a story of how those people you once knew so well, and saw so often, may have had their lives changed by their chance floating and rubbing up against each other. And it is a story which, in one small example, answers that most challenging of questions that teachers ask themselves: Did I make a difference?
National identity and diversity
There are three key domains to a national identity: governmental, public and cultural. Each has distinctive features, and each capture something of what people mean when they discuss national identity.
Smiling faces of integration
Right now, in the face of fear, it is much easier to use the well-worn trope of refugee and migrant ‘success stories’. This is the typical format used by governments and corporate campaigns, as well as media, showcasing those who have overcome hardships, found light in Australia and are now in some way contributing to the economy.
