If you have been following the media, American universities are under pressure to make their campuses culturally safer for students, in particular black students. Even the Australian version of the Guardian…
- Associate Professor, Design Anthropology, Swinburne University of Technology
‘I deeply believe that design will meet its true promise when designers engage in design for the sacred.’
Tuesday was the beginning of Navratri, the nine nights Hindu religious festival that celebrates the Mother Goddess Durga in her nine avatars. In the Indian state of Gujarat, the festival is celebrated…
The Nantongese Granny was angry. She believed her grandson was bringing a potential bride, not a group of researchers, to see her collection of indigo-dyed fabrics. Her sons and daughters laid out her…
This Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the Koorie Heritage Trust. The Trust will mark the occasion with the official opening of a new place in the Yarra Building on Federation Square. The move represents…
I recently concluded the Americas Cultures-Based Innovation (CBI) Symposium, co-hosted by the Banff Centre in Calgary, Canada. Being the third time that I have co-organised a CBI Symposium, I now know…
Being rooted is different from being connected or even grounded. As we know from our mobile phones, connectivity can be fleeting. Grounding is only at surface layers. Being rooted goes as deep in the earth as above in the sky, providing greater stability.
The Cool Japan program models how a new approach to the design industry might work in the degrowth economy. To paraphrase designer and engineer Buckminster Fuller, the best way to predict the future is to design it.
The only approach that you don’t find used in menstrual power protests is the use of menstrual blood as a love charm. Perhaps that’s because it taps into the deepest fears of people, especially of heterosexual men, of being entrapped by the power of women’s fertility.
I think I have successfully talked my partner out of getting an Apple Watch. I generally do not interfere with his purchase decisions, but the description of the Apple Watch’s features, or those of any…
Violence, exploitation, marginalisation: how do we engage in the struggle against the many faces of oppression in contemporary Australia?
What is it that draws young people to ISIS? And how can we design policies that prevent youth alienation?
The BDSM-themed movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, is the number one movie in Australia. Its success means that a lot of people are titillated by the idea of sex beyond “vanilla sex.” Controversy about BDSM…
Forget about the Presidential State of the Union address. If you want to understand American values, you need to watch the annual Super Bowl advertisements. This year 114 million people watched the ads…
As part of the Footscray Community Arts Centre’s Womenjika Festival this weekend, Mariaa Randall (Githatbul and Gidabul) and the DubaiKungkaMiyalk (DKM) Dance Company’s moving performance HA LF places…
Last week, the Development Circle posted on their Facebook page the Boring Development Manifesto. Prepared by The Campaign for Boring Development, it argues that “the real work of development is not glamorous…
Happy Solar New Year 2015! Don’t ask me what my New Year’s resolutions are this year. I stopped preparing resolutions because, as a ritual, it seemed to focus too much on imposing the will upon that which…
Last week, I arrived in India for five weeks of fieldwork on the role of the designer in changing values about natural indigo in contemporary India. This had given me the opportunity to interview interesting…
As part of the International Gender Design Network’s second Gender Design Conference, the GREAT Small: Gender Design Exhibition opened at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on October 10. Curated by…
In their 2014 Melbourne Fringe Festival performance Mama Alto and her musical director Tiffani Walton pay tribute to Sarah Vaughan, one of the great ladies of American song. Mama Alto charmed her audience…
Dear Music Industrial Complex, Do you mind if I call you Mic? I normally don’t write about pop music, but I am upset. I know that sex sells, but may I make a special request of no more music videos consisting…
On the wall hang three portraits of contemporary South Pacific Islanders, some with ships and all with duty stamps in the foreground. Skulls of sealed raw sugar glisten on a table. Bitter Sweet is the…
Having recently attended my university’s graduation ceremony, I noted again what seems to have become a global trend — design is becoming a field where the majority of practitioners are women. I have made…
Every Thursday, I go to the Prahran Market in Melbourne and buy, among other things, cut flowers. Since moving into a mid-rise apartment from a flat with a garden, I arrange flowers for my dining room…
On the occasion of US Secretary of State John Kerry trip to Australia for AUSMIN talks, I reflect upon the role of Australia in America’s democracy. Meetings such as AUSMIN focus on military contributions…
Contact Elizabeth for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
