The objects we gather around us - from op shops, from roadsides, from the intimate spaces of lost loved ones - are far from inanimate. They carry wisdom, comfort and guidance.
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Reflecting on the wartime treatment of two Japanese Australians (or Nikkei) raises the spectre of our racist past - and can prompt us to consider the vulnerabilities of Asian Australians today.
When YouTube started in 2005, it brought scenes from home and personal disclosures that helped us connect. Now late night television hosts are fuelling nostalgia for that recent history.
Today’s grandmothers spent their university years protesting. A former Australian Human Rights Commission president tells her sister grandmothers they have nothing to lose by continuing the fight.
How did a punchline about bad middle-aged fashion become a trendy must-have for women of all ages?
As cities, galleries and tourist destinations shut down across the world, news photographers are showing us our world anew.
A series of films made between 1927 and 1952 shone a light on the convict ruins of Port Arthur and helped develop dark tourism in Australia.
A new book gives a full account of Tasmanian Indigenous woman Truganini’s life. In this extract, she is taken to Melbourne and caught up in the murders behind Victoria’s first public execution.
We created a reading-machine that finds poetry hidden in plain sight in popular books. In doing so, we are exploring Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning and reading in a digitised world.
Long before Netflix’s Cheer documentary and JoJo Siwa, big huge hair bows were a thing. And it wasn’t always girls who wore them.
State archives hold precious Noongar letters pleading for the return of Stolen Generations children. Among them, I find my grandmother’s grandfather: historical records of love.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe brings the virtues and politics of the comic world - indeed the Ancient Greek world - to life. But trusting the message doesn’t mean I trust the corporation behind it.
This year Ludwig van Beethoven turns 250. Though some of his creations have been overexposed, they are indisputably brilliant. And there are still others waiting to be discovered by music lovers.
Indigenous kinship networks link each plant to the next and connect us to Country. Honouring this way of being and engaging in fair collaboration might give power to our heartbreak.
Instagram bushfire images cut through our news fatigue. This developing brand of photojournalism brings authenticity and a different sense of proximity.
Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and Hollywood cinema has kept pace. In a time of global warming, these ‘eco-disaster’ films are fraught with meaning.
Living in a bushfire-prone area means every decision - from plants to parking spots to holidays - is shaped by fire risk. We live and die by the advice we are given, and the advice we ignore.
Yothu Yindi’s music introduced the world to the Yolŋu clan traditions of northeast Arnhem Land. But few listeners know these songs echo long histories of engagement with Southeast Asian visitors.
Henry James called her a ‘great, horse-faced bluestocking’. On the 200th anniversary of her birth, we celebrate George Eliot, a literary trailblazer with an endless appetite for ideas, living in a patriarchal time.
Moulding eyebrows to make a statement is nothing new. A journey through history, across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, shows some of the highs and lows of brow fashion.
Top contributors
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Professor in Politics and Journalism, University of Notre Dame Australia
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Associate Professor in Literary Studies, Monash University
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Associate Professor in Creative Writing, Griffith University
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Visiting Research Fellow, Department of English and Creative Writing, Adelaide University
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Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
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Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland
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Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.
Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney
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PhD Candidate, Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor (adjunct) in Creative Writing, Flinders University
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Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne
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Lecturer, Deakin University
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Professor Emeritus of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith University
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Professor of English, Flinders University
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Research Fellow, Digital Cultures & Societies, The University of Queensland