Motley- Education- February 2024

The Motley Crew The Motley Crew

Ronan Keohane | Editor-In-Chief

Ronan Keohane is a final year World Languages student and the 2023 Global Citizen Award recipient. He wants to promote this magazine as an inclusive space and a creative and intellectual outlet for students.

Kevin Quane | Web Editor

Kevin is a student of physics and as such serves as motleys resident computer person. As a skilled procrastinator, he has become an expert at doing anything but college work. Can regularly be found eating cheese.

Sarah O’ Mahony | Assistant Editor Features and Opinions

Sarah O’Mahony is a final year English and Politics student. She is currently embracing her transformation into a Swiftie, much encouraged by her housemate.

Conor Hogan | Assistant Editor

Current Affairs

Conor is a final year history student who has made a number of contributions to the Motley in previous years. He has an interest in art, reading and politics.

Ciara Browne | Assistant Editor

Creative Works

Ciara, a writer, poet, artist, and fashion enthusiast. Excited to contribute my skills as Motley’s Creative Work Editor, celebrating campus creativity in diverse forms

Sydney Marhefsky | Assistant Editor

Entertainment

Sydney is a final year Arts student studying English and Politics and the winner of the 2022/23 Department of English Undergraduate Awards (2nd Arts). As a horror enthusiast they spend their free time deliberately scaring themself.

Owen Mamo Cooney | Graphic Designer

Owen is a 2nd year Psychology and Computing student. He is passionate about UX design and hopes to work with Nintendo in the future. In his spare time you can find him playing cards or despairing over his python code that doesn’t work.

Jessica Anne Rose | Deputy Editor-In-Chief

Jessica Anne Rose, a final-year BA English student, received a SMEDIAS Award for Feature Writer of the Year in Arts and Culture. Her poetry is featured in various publications, and she enjoys living vicariously through Sims 4 while listening to musicals.

Shannon Cotter | Assistant Editor

Features and Opinions

Shannon is a 2nd year Finance student and has experience working with UCC 98.3FM. Loves watching movies, reading books and working in part-time jobs where she doesn’t actually do anything.

Mary O’ Keeffe | Assistant Editor

Current Affairs

Mary is a final year Politics and English student, previously published by the Organization for World Peace. She’s also the secretary of UCC Scribblesoc and loves all things art!

Ella Barron Carton| Assistant Editor

Creative Works

Ella, a creative writing graduate from the University of Galway, now studying Planning and Sustainable Development, is excited to collaborate with writers and explore diverse storytelling mediums this semester.

Tess O’ Regan | Assistant Editor

Entertainment

Tess is a final year student in Film and Screen Media, with a minor in English. Their writing has previously been published in the Motley and on the Dublin International Film Festival website. Don’t ask them about what their favourite books unless you want a lecture.

Dr Julia Schneider, Dr Maggie O’Neill, Dr Angela Flynn, Dr Katy Dineen, Orla Leahy, Aran MacDonnchadha, Rachel Holly Dennehy, Aran MacDonnchadha, Tess O’Regan, Sarah O’Mahony, Sydney Marhefsky, Gerald O’ Donovan, Ellen Ní Chonchúir, Eoin Palmer, Marc Woodard, Jack McDonogh, Lorriane Patricia Casey, Ruby Kloskowski, Rebecca Jane Parke, Simon Dishlieva, Ciara Ellen Browne, Ava Palmer, Farahnaz Haidary, Jessica Anne Rose, Eleanor Coughlan, Marc Woodard, Arnaud Hug.

Editor’s Desk from the

Education is by far the theme I was most excited about featuring in this volume of Motley. Education is a subject and a topic that I am deeply passionate about. I have always been a big advocate for teaching people how to think as opposed to teaching them what to think. The cover of this magazine was taken during my time in Haghpat Monastery Complex, Armenia. Armenia is a country where I believe I learnt the most. This photo above was taken in The Duke’s Diwan, Amman, Jordan, a country which also taught me a lot.

Education is a fundamental aspect of both individual and collective development and advancement, and it allows for both minds and civilisations to flourish. If approached properly, education can allow people to fulfil many dreams and ambitions, empower us to tackle social issues, and help humanity adequately manage many unprecedented issues and circumstances. Education can potentially change both individuals and the world at large in a beautifully positive way. That being said, education is very much a double-edged sword. Alongside empowerment or flourishing, it also has the ability to indoctrinate and limit us. If education is approached with specific ulterior motives, it can foster conformity and limit critical thinking by only instructing people through limited paradigms and perspectives.

Education is also interesting because it can be acquired both formally and informally. I believe there is as much value as the skillsets you acquire and the insights you gain from embarking on a volunteer/ work placement as the lessons you receive in a standard lecture hall or classroom. On a personal level, I have always been put off by structured curriculums and veered towards informal approaches. I have struggled in conventional educational environments throughout my life because of this. Nearly all of my positive learning experiences have largely been self-directed by means of online courses, independent research, experiential learning and attending various workshops. Many others operate entirely differently from me and thrive in a textbook-based structured curriculum. Other people may reject all of the above and vouch for a kinaesthetic approach based on tactile learning. This is a great thing! Humanity is diverse, so of course, people’s approaches to learning won’t all be the same, and this shouldn’t define our worth.

I believe that the current state of education is quite flawed in a variety of different ways. In my opinion and experience of the Irish educational system, critical thinking, digital literacy and intercultural awareness were certainly not emphasised skillsets despite their importance and

growing necessity. Education is also oftentimes not inclusive. One example of this is that economic disparities have a direct effect on educational attainment across the board. In secondary school, educational privatisation and access to grind schools directly affect student performance in the leaving certificate exams when competing for University places. When underprivileged students undertake PLCs, the acceptance rates to advance to university-level studies are often very small. This existing system naturally makes universities more exclusionary spaces, which has a direct and significant impact on social science research, especially since there are many instances where groups who are underrepresented are not able to speak for themselves and their issues and instead get spoken on behalf of by people with different sets of privileges.

This type of phenomenon has also been accredited to facilitating the rise of bourgeois or non-inclusive feminism, limiting the fight for equality to a small subset of privileged individuals speaking on behalf of other groups with whom they do not share similar sets of experiences. This type of phenomenon creates a power inequality that affects people across the board and exacerbates unequal power dynamics.

The ignorance of many and its effect on the education of the few

The results of the 2022 Irish Census have revealed that 53 percent of the population have received third-level education, while the EU average is only 33 percent. Undoubtedly, in recent decades Ireland has come lengths in terms of education, tackling illiteracy and making both secondary and third-level education progressively more accessible. While much of the Irish public has been able to take advantage of this, one community has been left behind - the Irish Traveller Community.

A previous census found that only 54.4 percent of female Travellers and 57.2 percent of male Travellers held primary education or lower as their highest level of education. For context, this figure among the general population was only 11.7 and 13.6 percent, pointing to an alarming rate of discrimination that has been allowed to continue in our education system.

Given the extreme nature of this disparity, it is challenging to try and come to terms with how such high barriers to education exist in modern Ireland. A recent study entitled “Exploring Barriers to Education for Traveller Children in the North Cork Region and identifying Local Solutions to address these barriers” conducted by Patria McGrath of UCC, is highly effective in exploring and breaking down key reasons for this phenomenon and its impacts.

To briefly summarise, key findings in this report indicate that Travellers are being pushed out of education through a combination of exclusion, intimidation, and discrimination. Low expectations are highlighted as having an impact on the confidence and ambition of Traveller children in progressing in their education. With regards to children’s experiences in Irish schools, fair criticism is drawn to the lack of inclusion of Traveller history and culture within the curriculum. Furthermore, the study points out that the segregation of Traveller and non-Traveller students remains present in Ireland, particularly in North Cork.

Moreover, Irish public opinion on the Traveller Community has unfortunately been steeped in racism based on a firm foundation of ignorance, which makes dealing with these issues ever more difficult. Before children in the Traveller Community can get the positive educational experience that they have the right to, it may be vital to first tackle the deep-rooted ignorance of the Irish population as a whole. Arguably the most important factor in making education more accessible for members of the Traveller Community is educating our general population better on Traveller culture and the Communities historic and monumental discrimination under the Irish State to dismantle the pillar of ignorance which for decades has held up bigotry and racism against the Community within multiple institutions.

Bridging Worlds: Dr Schneider’s Journey Through Sinology, Manchu Studies, and Teaching Ethnic Diversity in Chinese Studies

Q: Thank you very much for joining us today! Could you please introduce yourself and share a bit about your academic background in Chinese studies?

A: Of course. My journey into academia and Chinese studies began in 1997 when I enrolled at Heidelberg University. Initially, my academic pursuits were quite eclectic; I embarked on my studies with a focus on music history and ethnology. My fascination with the cultural exchanges along the ancient Silk Road(s) led me to explore the intersections of music, culture, and history between East and West. As I ventured further into my studies, I found myself increasingly drawn to Asian and Eurasian cultures. Despite my initial focus on musicology and music history, my interests gradually expanded to encompass broader historical and cultural themes, particularly those related to Eurasia.

My academic journey took a significant turn when I encountered the complexities of the academic field of ethnology, which, at the time, presented a somewhat colonial and strange perspective on the ‘other.’ This discomfort made me reassess my academic trajectory and I decided to start studying China as an alternative, given that the Silk Road spans throughout China. This prompted a shift in my academic focus towards Chinese studies, or ‘sinology’, as it’s often referred to. Because of my original interest in Eurasia, I’ve always been interested in the ‘non-Chinese’ parts of China. Initially I studied modern Sinology, which spanned from the Opium wars until today, but eventually I changed the focus and started studying Classical Sinology. At the time, it was not a very popular subject. My academic pursuits took me through various institutions, including Humboldt University Berlin and Beijing Foreign Studies University (Beiwai) where I had the opportunity to explore Sinology at various institutions. I realised eventually that Heidelberg was a great place to study Sinology.

After several years of intensive study, I completed my Master’s degree at Heidelberg University in Classical Sinology and Musicology. During this time, I developed a keen interest in the ancestors of the Manchus, sparking a curiosity about the North-eastern regions of China and the area of Manchuria. Much later, this newfound interest would prompt me to embark on a journey to learn the Manchu language. With this passion for uncovering historical narratives I pursued a PhD (cotutelle) in Sinology in both Ghent University and the University of Göttingen which focused on the late Qing and early Republican periods and the intricacies of Manchu culture and history. In my academic pursuits, I have always wanted to explore diverse perspectives and discover untold stories. This field of study offers a wealth of knowledge and endless

opportunities for further discovery and understanding.

Q: I have heard that learning less commonly studied languages can pose unique challenges. What challenges have you faced in learning Manchu? Additionally, what sort of resources have you used and what have been the most rewarding aspects of this journey?

A: Learning a less commonly studied language like Manchu certainly presents its unique set of challenges. Unlike more widely spoken languages, finding a teacher proficient in Manchu proved to be quite challenging. In Göttingen, where I taught and researched as a postdoc in 2014-2019, I was fortunate not only to have a colleague who shared my desire to learn Manchu (and who took the photos), but to encounter a librarian and true philologist with expertise in Korean, Mongolian, Chinese, and Manchu, who generously offered guidance. However, even with this assistance, the availability of learning materials and textbooks in Manchu was limited, requiring us to rely on online resources and self-directed study to supplement my learning.

Moreover, the intricate nature of the Manchu language itself posed another obstacle. With its complex grammar and unique script, mastering Manchu required an investment of time and effort. The language’s rich literary tradition spans centuries of history. Through the study of Manchu texts, I have come across differing historical narratives, cultural insights, and linguistic nuances that enriched my understanding of Manchu culture and history. Despite these challenges, the journey of learning Manchu has been rewarding. One of the most fulfilling aspects has been the ability to engage directly with primary source materials, particularly historical documents, in their original language. The process of deciphering and translating Manchu texts has enabled me to uncover new perspectives and insights into the history of the Manchu people. I have gained particularly valuable insights into Manchu society’s social dynamics, governance structures, and intellectual traditions by investigating military texts, administrative documents, and diverse textbooks. Regarding physical resources, I have frequently used two primary online dictionaries for studying Manchu, which have been highly valuable resources in my learning journey. One of these dictionaries is compiled by Japanese Manchu scholars, providing comprehensive coverage of Manchu vocabulary and grammar. Additionally, I have the privilege of accessing a Manchu-German dictionary compiled by one of the most esteemed scholars in the field. These resources offer a wealth of information and guidance, aiding me in understanding the nuances of the language.

The study of Manchu has opened up avenues for interdisciplinary research, allowing me to bridge the gap between linguistics, history, and cultural studies. While learning Manchu has presented its fair share of challenges, the

rewards have far outweighed the difficulties.

Q: How has learning Manchu broadened your insights into understanding a different worldview?

A: One notable aspect is the bilingual nature of many texts, allowing direct comparison and revealing subtle differences between translations. These nuances are distinct from those found in Chinese texts. Compared to Chinese, Manchu offers a different linguistic framework, often conveying concepts with more concrete clarity. This distinction presents a unique perspective. While I haven’t encountered texts explicitly revealing ‘worldviews’, exploring Manchu texts provides a glimpse into a distinct part of the world.

In Manchu, I’ve noticed a distinct emphasis on verbs. Verbs play a significant role in expressing actions and concepts, providing insight into Manchu cultural practices and societal norms. Interestingly, many of these verbs are associated with themes of horses, forests, and rivers, reflecting the close connection between the Manchu people and their natural environment. Accessing intellectual texts in Manchu can be challenging, with many being translations from Chinese. However, these texts offer intriguing perspectives, often differing from their Chinese counterparts. This linguistic diversity fosters interdisciplinary research, bridging the gap between linguistics, history, and cultural studies. Collaborating with colleagues, we’ve explored these differences, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of Manchu language and culture. On a personal level, learning Manchu has expanded my worldview, prompting critical reflection on cultural diversity and historical narratives.

Q: How do you navigate teaching about minority groups in a module focused on Chinese studies broadly, considering their distinct identities and historical interactions with China?

A: Teaching about non-Chinese identity groups like Tibetans and Mongols within the context of a Chinese studies module requires a delicate balance. While it may be expected to primarily focus on ‘China’, it’s essential not to overlook these regions’ unique identities and histories. By incorporating discussions about Tibet and Mongolia, I aim to avoid the misconception that they are simply ‘extensions of China’. Recognising their distinct cultural identities is crucial in preserving their heritage and preventing their erasure. Despite the challenges, students have been receptive to exploring ethnic topics, particularly given the relevance of issues like those in Xinjiang, which have garnered significant media attention. This provides an ideal opportunity for students to engage with and critically examine these complex issues. It’s important to emphasise that how a government treats its minorities reflects its values and priorities, highlighting the significance of understanding these dynamics. Additionally, by addressing minority rights issues and shedding light on China’s marginalised groups, I strive to raise awareness and promote empathy among students, encouraging them to consider the broader implications of social and political dynamics on indigenous peoples worldwide, not just in the context of the People’s Republic of China alone.

INTERVIEW WITH DR. ANGELA FLYNN

INTERVIEW BY RONAN KEOHANE

Q1: Could we start with a quick self-introduction? Perhaps a little about yourself, your academic background, etc.

A: I am Angela Flynn, a full-time lecturer in the UCC School of Nursing and Midwifery since 2002. My PhD was in Social Sciences, where the primary focus was on inequalities and health disparities in Ireland, employing a genealogical approach. Currently, I am also the chair of the University Sanctuary Working Group and a UCC representative on the Scholars at Risk Ireland committee.

Q2: Can you provide our readers with a brief overview of the Scholars at Risk program and its mission?

A: Scholars at Risk (SAR) is a global network with its headquarters in New York, USA. It focuses on providing support to academics who may be at risk due to political persecution or perhaps various other vulnerable situations (e.g. armed conflict), which puts people in a position where their work is under attack and they can’t continue, and it may also be a threat to their lives and livelihood, oftentimes the risks range from sackings and, worst case scenarios, killings/ disappearances occur as well. SAR connects with universities globally, and facilitates placements in safe countries for scholars whose work and lives are under threat.

Q3: As a representative on the SAR Ireland committee, could you share how you became involved with Scholars at Risk and what motivated your participation?

A: My introduction to SAR stemmed from a presentation by Dug Cubie at a University of Sanctuary-related event in the School of Law. Intrigued by their mission, I delved into the group's activities.

As a member actively involved in the group, I assumed the role of UCC representative, collaborating with Laurence Davis from the Department of Government. SAR operates as an all-Ireland organization, fostering connections with universities such as Queens, Ulster University, University of Galway, UCD, Trinity, and Limerick. Our interactions primarily occur through regular online meetings and a continuous exchange of emails.

While we benefit from a modest funding pool from Universities Ireland, another all-island group providing secretarial support, our budget remains relatively limited.

There are a number of ways universities can collaborate with SAR the pinnacle of which is the hosting of an at risk Scholar. For example, we might hear about a Political science scholar who is facing risks and whose work aligns perfectly with UCC but because we lack the financial means, we cannot make arrangements to support or arrange the travel for the scholar at risk.. Budget constraints become particularly pronounced when considering hosting at a local level. Despite a strong desire to host scholars in need, difficulties arise due to financial limitations, compounded by issues like visas and travel restrictions. The commitment to supporting at-risk scholars remains unwavering, but navigating these challenges requires innovative solutions and additional financial support.

Q4: Have many issues arisen due to the budgetary restraints?

It is not an issue of will, there is a strong desire to host these people. There is a difficulty with positioning these people alongside other issues, e.g. visas and travel restrictions. Funding is a problem when it comes to hosting at a local level, and this is an incredibly difficult situation to navigate. We may have to start looking more widely to philanthropic sources of funding or perhaps engage in a community sponsorship model.

Q5: Scholars at Risk aims to ensure that scholars' ideas are not lost. Can you elaborate on how this preservation of ideas is achieved within the program?

A: From its headquarters in New York, SAR Europe operates out of an office based at Maynooth University. The head office maintains a comprehensive list of scholars currently registered with them, detailing their fields of study and vetting their 'at risk' status. Regularly, thematic listings of scholars are sent to member universities, including countries they might be interested in working in. Member universities review these anonymised lists, and when they identify specific openings, they are encouraged to forward the opportunities. The communication also extends an invitation to universities to reach out if they have any positions available. While the list is anonymised, gender information may be included.

This process plays a crucial role in facilitating scholars to leave precarious situations. Although it involves complexities such as issues, family considerations, accommodation, and transportation, successful outcomes are achievable. A notable example involves a colleague at Trinity College who, through SAR, as-

sisted an academic from Afghanistan's legal background in relocating to Ireland and securing an academic position.

The support offered by SAR goes beyond job placement. They organise a SAR speaker series, inviting scholars to visit Ireland and speak at various universities on topics related to their research field, home country, and, occasionally, their experiences of persecution. Before the onset of COVID-19, we were fortunate to host Dr. Prosper Maguchu during one of these events. Dr. Maguchu spoke about the role of trade unions and workers' unions in his country in a co-hosted event with the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT). The event, attended by librarians, academics, teachers, and more, provided an opportunity for networking and fostering understanding between scholars and the academic community in Ireland. It demonstrated how SAR's initiatives not only offer career opportunities but also contribute to enriching academic dialogue and global understanding.

Q6: For our readers who may be new to the concept, how would you explain the importance of academic freedom and the role Scholars at Risk plays in safeguarding it?

A: In Ireland, academic freedom is legally protected, thanks to its inclusion in the 1997 Universities Act, driven by the proactive efforts of the IFUT union. This safeguard allows researchers and academics to critique government policies without fear of reprisal, a crucial element for a robust democracy. However, academic freedom is not without challenges, particularly in the context of publicly funded education, where financial pressures may lead to attacks on publications. This issue is not unique to Ireland and has global precedents. While extreme cases of persecution exist worldwide, subtler challenges, such as issues with course availabilities, persist locally. These challenges often stem from a neoliberal university approach that emphasises functionality. Safeguarding academic freedom remains vital for preserving the integrity of our educational institutions and democratic values.

Q8: How do you see the work of Scholars at Risk contributing to the development of a more interconnected and diverse global academic community?

A: Our University of Sanctuary role is embedded in the university's global engagement plan (Goal 3, section 3.4), a testament to dedicated efforts for its inclusion. Beyond supporting scholars at risk, we currently offer seven undergraduate scholarships annually, supported by Tomar Trust, and additional scholarships in the Language Center and Adult Continuing Education Department for refugees and asylum seekers.

While these initiatives are commendable, there is a call for expansion, particularly in providing more postgraduate scholarships to accommodate individuals seeking international protection with existing undergraduate degrees.

A proposed needs analysis involves surveying centres and residences in Cork to better understand and address community needs. Collaboration across univer-

sity facets is evident, but securing the necessary funding remains crucial, emphasising Ireland's unique position as publicly funded.

Q9: How did your presentation during UCC Refugee Week 2021 contribute to raising awareness about SAR?

Angela Flynn: Although attendance was low, events like UCC Refugee Week contribute to awareness. For 2024, planned SAR sessions and inviting the European coordinator, Sarah Field, aim to raise further awareness about SAR and the importance of university sanctuary status.

Q10: This was a really interesting conversation, I would like to finally ask: What sparked your personal interest in Scholars at Risk, and how do you feel personally connected to its mission?

A: I have a very strong commitment to the value of solidarity. I recently saw solidarity defined as “love practised politically”, which I think is superb. My genuine and deeply felt passion for social justice and equity of opportunity sparked my interest in advocacy. I am actively engaged with Sanctuary Runners, an organisation through which I've formed connections with friends from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds.

The realisation of our shared humanity emerges when you see that these individuals are merely seeking better lives and opportunities for their children. This awareness makes it difficult to turn away from their plight. Whether running alongside people, organising scholar visits, or arranging events for children, our role in the sanctuary supports diversity. Recognising diversity as our strength reinforces the importance of these efforts in fostering a more inclusive and equitable society.

INTERVIEW WITH ORLA LEAHY

Interview by Ronan Keohane

my research, was fortunate to learn of the Law Academy, a one-day taster programme for aspiring law students. There, I had the opportunity to attend lectures, learn about mooting, and speak to some of the then-current law students. I absolutely loved the day and realised that I wanted to study law. As well as the traditional routes of qualifying as a solicitor/barrister, I learned that law can open up many doors, from academia to journalism and from roles within the EU institutions to the civil service.

Studying Law and Irish allowed me to develop a strong foundation in law and continue to pursue Irish.

Academic Achievements:

Academic Achievements

Congratulations on winning the Quercus scholarship! How has this recognition impacted your academic journey and personal growth?

Thank you very much Ronan! It was an honour to be awarded the University (Academic) Scholarship in my second year. Quercus is an incredible programme to be part of. Personally, it has offered me opportunities to evaluate and to work towards my goals both through the life coaching that the programme offers, and with the support of my academic mentor. The Quercus Team is extremely supportive, and the programme also offers great opportunities to network, and to meet and learn from students in other disciplines through the lecture series. Applications for Quercus Scholarships in the fields of sport, innovation and entrepreneurship, active citizenship, and creative and performing arts, are open until February 7th. I would highly encourage students to consider applying.

Internships Experience

Can you share a bit about yourself and your journey in pursuing a law degree with a focus on Irish?

I grew up in Cork and have always been interested in studying at UCC, particularly as my mom also studied at UCC, and my parents married in the Honan Chapel. In secondary school, I particularly enjoyed Irish and had a fantastic teacher who encouraged debating through Irish as an extracurricular, and helped me to appreciate and enjoy using the language. Towards the end of secondary school, I knew I wanted to keep studying Irish at third level.

I looked into the dual degree options that would allow me to pursue Irish with another subject and, through

Internship Experience

You did an internship with the Department of Justice. How did this experience shape your understanding of the legal system and your career aspirations?

I really enjoyed my time at the Department of Justice. I spent 8 months working in Criminal Justice Policy, and learned so much about the various elements of our criminal justice system, as well as Dáil Éireann and the legislature. I worked with a wonderful team and through the various projects we managed, I met people from across Ireland working in the civil service and beyond. I believe that trying to obtain as many diverse experiences as possible during one’s degree can be extremely useful for developing skills but also exploring the many career opportunities that exist.

Involvement in the UCC Law Society:

UCC LAw Society

As an active member of the Law Society, what initiatives or projects have you been involved in that you find particularly meaningful?

This year, I was responsible for organising our Annual Conference, and has been one of the highlights of my society experiences. I chose to develop the conference around the theme of Ireland’s Role in International Justice Through the European Lens. Having always enjoyed studying EU law and travelling around Europe, I wanted to develop the conference around something that I was passionate about. I also wanted to give students the opportunity to learn more about EU law and to hear from leading alumni and other speakers working in the EU institutions and beyond, but also to celebrate 50 years since Ireland joined the EU. It was a pleasure to manage and work with a subcommittee of 8 other students when planning and

organising the conference. I made great friends through this project, developed fantastic connections, and really enjoyed the chance to build a professional law conference such as this How has participation in extracurricular activities like the Law Society enhanced your overall university experience?

I’ve met some of my best friends through extracurriculars, and have had the opportunity to develop additional skills such as project management, and people skills. It has been refreshing to take a break from study by engaging in the Law Society, I have had terrific opportunities to network and to learn more about the legal profession and other careers through our Education events, to work on advocacy through debating, mooting, and negotiating, and to unwind at our social events such as Law Ball. I always encourage students to try out different societies, I strongly believe that there is a society suited to everyone. Getting involved in the extracurriculars in UCC has been a real highlight of my time here.

As the current Conference Director, what responsibilities does your role entail, and how do you manage the various aspects of organizing conferences?

My role organising the conference has now come to an end with the conclusion of the conference in November. However, on a basic level, my role involved designing the theme for our 23rd Annual Conference, inviting appropriate guest speakers and developing the panels’ themes, organising speakers’ transport and accommodation, and booking and preparing the Aula Maxima. The conference would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of William Fry, and part of my role involved managing our finance, though most of the financial side was completed by the Finance Officer of the Law Society, whose support was of great assistance. I spent many months preparing for the conference, and was fortunate to have a driven subcommittee to work with, including both law and non-law students from all years. Together, we focused extensively on advertising. Additionally, having a subcommittee allowed me to delegate tasks so that I could focus primarily on liaising directly with the speakers in the weeks leading up to the event. We also ran both a quiz at which we revealed the theme of the conference, and Bingo Bangers, in aid of our chosen charity partner, Nasc, in advance of the conference. We will be releasing our final fundraising figure in the next few weeks.

How does your position as Conference Director align with your passion for facilitating greater access equality to resources

and opportunities?

I saw the conference as an opportunity to give students and the UCC community a platform to hear from several panels of renowned speakers, whether alumni or other leaders in their fields, to further their knowledge from lectures on key themes within EU law and how Ireland plays a role in European international justice. The networking elements incorporated into the conference, I feel in particular, offered students a chance to build upon what they had learned through the modules by hearing first hand from external speakers, as well as hearing from the School of Law’s faculty. Additionally, I used the conference to include an additional panel for the first time, linked to the conference’s theme, aimed at shining a light on alternative careers in law within the EU institutions, in diplomacy, or within the Irish civil service. It was wonderful to bring Ireland’s only student-led professional law conference to the Aula Maxima, hopefully increasing the accessibility of networking and knowledge sharing in EU law to students.

What advice would you give to other people considering pursuing a law degree?

I would highly recommend attending the Law Academy, which runs over the October and February school midterms. The Academy allowed me to realise that I wanted to study law. I would also recommend speaking to both current students and recent graduates where possible to help choose which law degree would best suit you..

From speaking to prospective students, I know that many are concerned about points. I would stress not to let CAO points put you off from applying. The points are constantly changing, and there are other options including PLCs which afford entry into law degrees at UCC.

Something to consider when choosing which degree is whether you would like an Erasmus or placement opportunity in third year. Reading up on the third year options for the various law programmes is particularly useful. Law and Irish includes the option for Erasmus or placement, or an additional semester studying in UCC. I chose placement for my third year. Not all programmes include Erasmus and placement opportunities, some include one or the other.

Ultimately, I would encourage prospective students interested in law to take the opportunity to apply!

Unearthing Knowledge: Dr. Katy Dineen on Epistemic Injustice and the Fight for Fairness in Higher Education

interview by mary o keefe

The following interview is with Katy Dineen, who lectures for the Department of Philosophy and the Centre for the Integration of Research Teaching and Learning. She focuses on a concept that many of our readers will resonate with, although the terminology might be unfamiliar. Dr Dineen recently co-authored a paper with Sarah Thelen and Anna Santucci focused on this emerging field of research--”Whose Knowledge is it Anyway? Epistemic Injustice and the Supervisor/Supervisee Relationship.”

In your paper, you define epistemic injustice as a study of fairness as it relates to knowledge- could you expand on this definition? Epistemic injustice recognizes the ethical and social justice dimension to knowledge. Miranda Fricker, who coined the term, would say there’s a distinctive kind of injustice that can be done to someone in their capacity as knower. I’m interested in the application of ideas about epistemic injustice in the context of teaching and learning in higher education. When I step into a classroom, where I may be perceived as holding authority as a lecturer, there’s already a hierarchical relationship between me and my students. It’s important to acknowledge that relationship and try to address it in ways that are transparent and fair to students. I think epistemic injustice gives us a framework to start to critique those hierarchies.

What drew you towards this area of study? Were you interested in the intersection of structural hierarchies, or was this prompted by your own experiences in academia?

Both. My research interests are in the inclusion of women and children in society, education and health. Part of what motivates me is my own lived experience- I’m a woman in a very male dominated field. I’ve experienced being the only woman in the room, and I’ve experienced how the adversarial way of doing philosophy can feel exclusionary. Sometimes it can feel like the best way of being right in philosophy (and therefore showing yourself to be a ‘knower’) is to prove that someone else is wrong (and thereby discount their knowledge). I think that there’s something very special about higher education. As Cardinal Henry Newman put it,, the aim of the university is to reach out towards truth and to grasp it. We must remember the ethics and justice implicit in this aim. It’s important to probe higher education institutions with questions like, ‘are we inclusive in the journey towards truth’ and ‘is anyone harmed in the generation of this knowledge’. I think there are parts of institutions of higher education that perhaps don’t receive the sort of scrutiny that they should. Research supervision is one such area. It’s encouraging to see our university taking steps to acknowledge the hierarchy involved in this area and provide the necessary supports. However, it’s still important to keep a critical eye on higher education to make sure that our institutions are supporting all students to reach out to truth and to grasp it.

Last Wednesday, (14th February) we saw a postgraduate strike as PhD candidates across Ireland campaigned for a living wage. Do you think an economic influence worsens this epistemic inequality in education? I absolutely think that the economic position of PhD students impacts their epistemic power. Epistemic power is an idea put forward by Machteld Geuskens (ironically in a PhD dissertation), and it relates to the ability to exert influence on what comes to be regarded as knowledge. It’s the ability to influence what others believe, think and know. If you don’t come from a relatively wealthy socio-economic background, and you’re dependent on inadequate grants, then you’re going to think twice about undertaking a research degree. If you do decide to undertake that research, but you have to do so while also working long hours outside of your degree, then the exhaustion may contribute to you deciding to drop out. The loss here isn’t just personal. We lose lived experience, we lose a diversity of research students bringing a diversity of interests and motivation; and ultimately, we lose knowledge. I would argue, if the knowledge that is being produced merely represents the life experience of people who can afford to self-finance their studies then at best it is partial knowledge. We need students from all segments of society to be supported, to be able to influence what others believe, think and know.

In your paper, you make reference to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and advise its implementation in higher education as a method of reducing epistemic inequality. What is SoTL, and why is it important? SoTL is about subjecting student learning in higher education to inquiry, and informing and supporting those who teach.. I have been incredibly lucky in my own life to have come across talented and supportive philosophy lecturers. For me, SoTL is important because it gives me some tools with which to reflect on my teaching. I want to live up to the teaching I received. Teaching is an opportunity to positively impact others’ lives, but that opportunity comes with a responsibility. As an educator, I think I have a responsibility to try my best for my students. SoTL allows me to reflect on what this ‘best’ might be, and how to make it happen. I also think that there is more to SoTL than an individualistic focus on teaching and learning. Teaching and

learning happens within a context. For teaching and learning to be at its best, we have to critique that context. SoTL allows us to do that social justice critique of higher education institutions.

A lot of what I do seems quite critical, but there must be an element of hope involved, and I do feel like practising SoTL is hopeful. Reflecting on teaching and learning has led me to Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is about recognising and responding to diversity in the classroom and creating options and supports for all students.

As epistemic injustice is a hierarchical concept, what can we as students, who hold less epistemic power, do to promote a more beneficial system of learning?

Absolutely! Students should be active in questioning their education and the institutions of higher education. Raise your hand if you are being excluded from knowledge. I recently walked to the back of the classroom while teaching and realised I couldn’t read the font on my powerpoint. I would have been delighted if a student had told me about this. Students can strike, as you mentioned above, to gain the sorts of supports they need to be epistemically powerful. Just because there are hierarchies, doesn’t mean that anyone is powerless. I’ve been heartened when students exercise their power and make things better, not just for themselves, but for the collective. I’m not saying it is the responsibility of students to right these wrongs (or, for that matter, to remind me to have more accessible teaching materials). I’m saying we are better when we try to address injustice together.

our collective actions and decisions can have.

Are there any other positive changes in Irish universities to combat epistemic injustice that you would like to see being made?

In your paper, you note the overlap between the other social hierarchies, including misogyny, and the prevalence of what’s called testimonial injustice, wherein a student’s identity is used to detract from their perceived credibility. In your opinion, are the current strides being made in the promotion of diversity, equality, and accessibility in Irish higher learning sufficient to combat testimonial/epistemic injustice? Yes, I think there are strides being made. I’ve seen a concerted push at national and UCC level to address diversity, equality and accessibility. There are so many good things in this vein happening at UCC. I’ve mentioned UDL. There’s a digital badge run through the Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) that supports UCC staff to incorporate UDL within their practice. Another example is the ID+ project, which promotes the rights of people with intellectual disabilities in higher education. Inclusive UCC promotes digital inclusion for all students, and the PLUS programme provides a mentoring programme for Traveller students in higher education. CIRTL also led a pedagogical partners initiative earlier this year where 10 students worked with 5 lecturers to provide feedback on live teaching and encourage more inclusive teaching practices. By supporting the epistemic power of students, these initiatives help to combat epistemic injustice. The question you haven’t asked is, ‘is it enough?’ Really, it’s never going to be enough. Inclusion is a journey, and we have a long way to go. We all need to be constantly aware of how we organise our institutions and question the marginalising impact

I think the financial positioning of students is probably one of the more important things we have to address. I also think we need more publicly available data at postgrad level, nationally. It would be interesting to know whether our research student communities are di verse, or are we losing students from particular backgrounds as they move to postgraduate level. My suspicion is that the economic situation makes it that much harder to be a postgraduate student, and again a PhD student. If we don’t tackle this question, we risk empowering some knowers and disempowering others. When it comes to epistemic injustice, this might mean an entrenching of hierarchies and a steeper differentiation between the (knowledge) haves and the (knowledge) have nots. In my opinion, unless we do something to ad dress this, we will be left with an impoverished version of higher education.

Interview with Dr.Maggie O’Neill UCC FUTURES

Q: Thank you very much for joining us today! Could we please begin the interview with a self-introduction?

A: My name is Maggie O’Neill, I am an interdisciplinary scholar and I’m professor of Sociology & Criminology here at University College Cork, also currently director of ISS21 and leading UCC Collective Social Futures programme. Before my work at UCC, I was chair in Sociology & Criminology in the Department of Sociology at the University of York, and I was Professor in Sociology & Criminology at the University of Durham and Principal of Ustinov College.

My PhD focused on feminist participatory action research with sex workers, completed in 1996. I’m a big fan of n participatory action research, ethnography, and arts-based methods; collaborating with artists and communities for social justice. I’m honoured to be elected as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the Royal Society of Arts.

Q: Thank you very much- Can you provide a comprehensive overview of the “Collective Social Futures” program, highlighting its main objectives and focus areas?

A: Certainly. The “Collective Social Futures” program is a ground-breaking initiative under the UCC Futures umbrella. The program was founded by a ‘collectve’ ISS21, the Center for Co-operative Studies, the Energy Research Institute, the Cleaner Production Unit and the Health Inclusion Group . It is one of ten ‘Fu-

By Current Affairs Editor, Conor Hogan

tures’ of the broader UCC Futures initiative led by the Vice President of Research, John Cryan. The UCC Futures program’s core objective is to establish ten major thematic areas as the focal points for research across the university. These themes, carefully selected to address pressing societal issues, naturally lend themselves to disciplinary research but are intended to foster transdisciplinary collaboration.

While the UCC Futures program’s implementation is gradual, working collaboratively with colleagues, efforts are underway to delineate its governance structures and define the roles of various stakeholders. The UCC Futures:Collective Social Futures program’s mission and objectives reflect a commitment to inter and transdisciplinary research.. Ultimately, the “Collective Social Futures” program serves as a platform for collaboration, facilitating research, dialogue and innovation across academic disciplines that align broadly with Social Sciences UCC.

Q: How does the program foster trans-disciplinary research and collaboration across different departments within the university? Why is this considered such an important goal?

A: The “Collective Social Futures” program prioritizes research in areas of strategic importance, emphasizing the centrality of the social sciences in shaping our collective future. By recognizing the vital role of the social sciences as a unifying force, the program serves as a catalyst for transdisciplinary collaboration across various departments within the university The programme is about research prioritisation, in areas of strategic importance and the social sciences are central to all of the Futures, all of the futures deal with human beings, society, and culture. As the Lord Mayor of Cork said at our Re-

cent Festival of Social Science ‘ the Social Sciences can change society’

As a sociologist, I’ve witnessed first-hand how the social sciences can act as a glue, facilitating understandings of human behaviour, social processes and practices and this understanding can lead to policy-oriented outcomes as an impact of research. Sociology is crucial for better understanding, envisioning and enacting our collective futures, especially in these turbulent times defined by many as ‘poly crisis’. However, the status of the social sciences remains somewhat problematic, overshadowed by an overarching emphasis on other disciplines, notably STEM. This underscores the importance of initiatives like the “UCCFutures:Collective Social Futures” program, which seeks to elevate the profile of the social sciences and integrate them more seamlessly into our trans and interdisciplinary research endeavours. Moreover, the program’s approach stands in stark contrast to the prevailing trend of universities as business entities. While my previous experiences in the UK sector highlighted a relentless focus on grant generation and publications, UCC’s commitment to placing professors and students at the heart of its academic mission is commendable. This cultural shift towards prioritizing research led teaching excellence and fostering meaningful student engagement is instrumental in nurturing a collaborative research environment. In essence, the “Collective Social Futures” program embodies a paradigm shift towards embracing transdisciplinary research and collaboration. By leveraging the expertise of diverse departments and placing a renewed emphasis on teaching and student-centric approaches, the program paves the way for innovative solutions to complex societal challenges - working together to create change

I: Could you share your perspective on a specific research theme or

project within the program that you found to be particularly interesting or impactful?

H: Absolutely. The program focuses on understanding, envisioning, and enacting our social futures. Under the theme of understanding we engage in critical analyses of societal complexity, social difference, and key global issues. For example migration is one key area explored. The “Envisioning” aspect involves creative thinking and imagining what kind of future do we want and how might we get there. This involves collaborations with artists and also community partners. Personally, I have recently worked with a Finnish artist working on ‘climigration’— the intersection of climate and migration.

One standout project within the “Collective Social Futures” program is “Euroborders,” which I’m currently involved in. This project focuses on three significant European borders: Poland/ Ukraine, Republic of Ireland/ Northern Ireland, and Bosnia/ Croatia. By collaborating with individuals who navigate these borders, who work at, live and / or cross these borders we aim to understand their complexities, write a biography of the three borders and translate this knowledge into educational curricula. What sets “Euroborders” apart is its interdisciplinary approach, blending sociology, history, and the arts. Artists contribute both sociological insights and artistic expression, enriching the project’s narrative. By intertwining analysis with creativity, “Euroborders” prompts critical reflections on migration and border dynamics. This project exemplifies the program’s pillars of understanding, envisioning, and enacting societal change.

Q: Wow that sounds really interesting! Would you be able to briefly expand on the pillars and how Euroborders successfully incorporates them?

Understanding: Through sociological analysis, we dissect the societal complexities surrounding border regions. By critically examining the historical, cultural, and economic factors at play, we gain insights into the lived experiences of individuals within these communities. Envisioning: Creatively envisioning a more inclusive and caring society is central to our project. By working with artists, we explore innovative ways to convey our findings and stimulate dialogue on the key issues that emerge about or at these borders and share our findings with EU commissioners. Enacting: Our project goes beyond theoretical exploration; it seeks to enact tangible change by translating our research into educational curricula. By engaging with both university and secondary education settings, we aim to disseminate knowledge and facilitate individuals to challenge prevailing ideologies. “Euroborders” exemplifies the program’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and meaningful societal transformation. Through a holistic approach encompassing understanding, envisioning, and enacting change, projects like “Euroborders” contribute to shaping a more equitable and sustainable future for all.

Q: How does the Collective Social Futures program actively engage with local communities in its research and initiatives? Why is this considered an important goal?

UCC, through its education strategy and university-wide strategy, actively collaborates with local community groups. As such, it is really vital to have members of community groups to sit in and help determine what ‘collective social futures’ actually means and how we can develop the programme. In April and May we will have a series of community-facing events, wherein we can learn how to work more collectively and collaboratively.

Members from the communities and groups we work with will have a seat at the table, influencing how “Collective Social Futures” develops. These events serve as opportunities to learn collectively and collaboratively, allowing community input to shape research agendas. By fostering a culture of collaboration and co-creation, the program acknowledges that the best practices in research emerge from the communities themselves. This approach not only strengthens the relevance and impact of research initiatives but also promotes a sense of ownership and empowerment among communities. Individual researchers within the program also play a pivotal role in community involvement. For example, I work closely with groups focused on sexual violence, traveller visibility, and migrant rights. This direct engagement ensures that research efforts are aligned with local priorities and that community members are empowered to participate in and benefit from the research process.

Ultimately, the program’s commitment to involving local communities underscores its dedication to creating positive social change and addressing pressing issues in partnership with those most affected.

I: Would you be able to provide an example of how students were able to actively contribute to the research and initiatives conducted by the “Collective Social Futures” program?

H: While the program is still developing, it highly prioritises the partnership between students and professors and prioritises student involvement in research endeavours. A notable project emerged from this ethos, focusing on gender representation in public spaces. Through collaborative efforts, students and professors identified the absence of statues commemorating women and a lack of female representation in the typography of the

UCC FUTURES

city. This initiative spurred the creation of the ‘feminist walk of Cork’, where students took a leading role in rewriting the city’s narrative to include women. External organizations, such as the Cork Migrant Centre, Sexual Violence Centre Cork, Traveller Visibility Group, Nano Nagle, the Firkin Crane, are involved and more recently Cork Alliance and Cork Penny Dinners, were subsequently drawn into this collaborative effort, showcasing the program’s ability to foster partnerships extending beyond academia. By actively participating in such initiatives, students not only contribute meaningfully to research but also play a pivotal role in reshaping societal narratives and advancing social justice agendas within the community.

Q: When researching this programme, I came across the stated vision of creating a ‘more caring and liveable world for all’. I thought this was pretty cool. Any particular examples of a project based around ‘care’?

A: Yes! Central to the program’s mission is the vision of nurturing a more caring and liveable world for all, guiding its research and initiatives. A prime example is the “Care Visions” project within ISS21, which unpacks the concept of care in collaboration with community partners, including disability rights organizations. This project examines into how societal structures shape care practices and aims to envision a future grounded in care, compassion and inclusivity.

The program’s research is also informed by theoretical insights, such as Kathleen Lynch’s exploration of “Care and Capitalism,” examining to what ways a capitalist system is conducive to care. This project shed light on systemic issues like the housing crisis in West Cork. By critically examining these dynamics, the program seeks to address societal challenges and advocate for meaningful change. Ultimately, through its research and initiatives, the program strives to contribute to the realization of a society where care is not only a theoretical ideal but a tangible reality for every individual, fostering a more equitable and compassionate world.

This initiative aligns with the broader vision of fostering a more caring and livable world for all, challenging tokenistic approaches and addressing critical issues.

I: How does the program celebrate its achievements, and how can the broader university community stay informed about its progress?

The program celebrates achievements by hosting festivals that involve the community and to showcase its work. In our recent Social Sciences festival, for instance, we held an evening of song, spoken word and theatre to highlight socially engaged research - Misneach performed and shared songs on what it is like to be young women, reflecting their experiences and hopes. The assertions made through their creative expression confirmed findings carried out in our research on gender, feminisms and young people’s inter personal relations - growing up as a girl .

These events highlight the relationship between the university and the community. These creative expressions not only celebrate the achievements of the program but also amplify the voices of community members, bridging the gap between academic research and lived experiences. Regarding how to stay informed, the broader university community can access updates through newsletters, social media, and university announcements. By sharing information widely, the program promotes transparency and encourages engagement from all stakeholders.

by Aran MacDonnchadha

51 years later, the message that still needs to be learned.

On the 10th of March, Lily Gladstone could become the first indigenous American to win best actress at the Academy Awards. Despite this she will not be the first indigenous woman to make a speech at the ceremony, as that “honour” went to Sacheen Littlefeather at the 1973 Academy Awards.

As the winner of the best actor category was announced that night, it became apparent that the winner, Marlon Brando, was not present. Instead Littlefeather took to the stage and announced that Brando would not be accepting “this generous award”. While Littlefeather would explain his reasons it is perhaps best to hear the words from the man himself:

“Indians have been tragically misrepresented in films and in our history books, in our attitudes, in our reporting and so we must set about to re-educate ourselves”

“I don’t think that people, generally realise what the motion picture industry has done to the American Indian as a matter a fact all ethnic groups, all minorities, all non-whites, and people simply don’t realise, they just took it for granted that, that’s the way people are going to be presented and these cliches were just going to be perpetuated”

‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is a film which demonstrates that the American film industry has come a long way in terms of its respect for indigenous

people and their culture. Nevertheless, the film has been prematurely branded as having a “white saviour” narrative by some. Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Ernest Burkhart, despite being the protagonist, is undoubtedly a villain in this story. Ernest Burkart is portrayed as not being very intellectual and throughout the film we see how his uncle, played by Robert DeNiro, is easily able to take advantage of this for personal gain. Ernest Burkart is fully aware of each plot to kill members of Molly’s family throughout the film, and despite genuine love being shared between them, at no point does he admit his complicity to his wife.

Similarly to Brando, Scorsese points out the media’s role in the misrepresentation of indigenous people and their struggles, albeit through a different approach, which can be observed in the film’s closing scene, as a radio show sensationalises and makes a gimmick of the decade long struggle of the Osage against corruption and violence.

Another vital scene when contemplating the film’s overall message is Molly and Ernest’s final scene together. Taking place following a court trial involving Ernest, Molly comes to the realisation that Ernest was involved in her long-term poisoning. She gives him his chance to confess his involvement, and when he does not take this opportunity, she leaves and soon goes on to divorce him. The message in this scene which is carried throughout the film seems to be that silence is complicity and ignorance does not absolve us of responsibility when crimes against humanity are occurring. In essence, it would seem Brando and Littlefeather, similarly to Scorsese, tried to hold a mirror up to American identity and its often-glorified history, as well as the media’s misrepresentation of indigenous people and glorification of acts of ethnic cleansing.

From Milan to Ireland: Navigating

the Landscape

of Chinese Studies and Culture, Anna Giulia Bettoni

THE EDUCATIONAL POWER OF MEDIA

BY RACHEL HOLLY DENNEHY

What we consume holds more meaning than one may initially believe. Everyone, no matter who they are, where they are from, what they like, consumes media at one point or another. It is a global phenomenon that has become a dominant part of all of our lives. However, it is not just for entertainment reasons that we should discuss the impact that media has, but also for its ability to entertain on a complex level ranging from film to music and beyond. Media is a powerful tool for us to connect, inform, and educate. The power of this tool is that it can reach thousands, even millions of people and teach them something new in a more impactful way than directly conveying a message can ever achieve. Media encourages discussion and captures public attention. Think about it, when people like a song or a film there is often public discourse around its release, bringing attention to the art and to the meaning of the piece, allowing its message to spread beyond the target demographic and informing people of all ages of various injustices or topics that must be discussed. There is meaning behind everything: everything is put out for our consumption with a reason behind it. The creator of a piece of media wants to tell us something about themselves or the world and draw our attention away from our oblivious way of living, and to instead bring our focus to the greater things that so-

ciety can easily hide from us and to educate us about a different way of life. Thus, this article is going to examine two recent pieces of media that I have come across that serve a greater purpose than mere entertainment.

The Barbie (2023) movie serves as a quintessential example of an unconventional means of educating an audience about a wider issue. Barbieland is disguised as a place of fun and vibrant colour where everyone simply loves life, but it is juxtaposed with the real world to capture how our dreams are not our reality. The real world displays the practice of patriarchy which is very much present today. The power of Gloria’s (America Ferrera) speech is not that she is teaching us something that we are not aware of. Indeed, the problem is that we are aware, but society as a whole continues to mistreat women and ignore the greater issue at hand. Gloria’s speech is both necessary and relevant as she puts the reality of life into a powerful monologue that strikes a nerve and encourages the audience to reflect on the practice of patriarchy in today’s world. The speech conveys that regardless of how far we have come, we still have a long way to go. Young children may simply like this movie for the fun and vibrant energy it provides, but for older people, the hidden yet obvious message of the film is apparent. Barbie (2023) is a reflection of our world, with many people connecting it to their own lives and lived experiences. By showing it unfold from a third person perspective, the film brings awareness to the

danger that arises from the normalization of sexist attitudes and behaviours and educates its audience about the current prevalence of sexism and misogyny.

Music is another powerful tool that can effectively capture the attention of an audience and educate them about broader issues. Recently, I listened to Lauren Jauregui’s recent single “The Day the World Blows Up” which strikes me more as a powerful message as opposed to a song demonstrating her beautiful voice and vocals. The song, prompted by the media attention that has been gathered in recent months, eloquently educates people about Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The lyrics are powerful in a way that makes the listener really think about what is going on in the world, as she conveys to her audience that she has had enough of people ignoring the issue at hand. Jauregui asserts that society needs to stop believing that this is how people are supposed to live: In terror and in fear of dehumanisation. The song is powerful in conveying the essence of the current climate of the world and all the heightened emotions that have been evoked by the media consumption associated with the recent events in the news. The primary purpose of her song is to tell people to have humanity. As long as people accept tragedies like this as normal, nothing will ever change, indicating the power humanity has in working towards justice. The song concludes with the powerful feeling that as long as crises like this continue to happen, we are all dehumanised by association.

Art is a powerful tool embedded in expression and education. Although I selected just two examples of recent media that I have been exposed to, the power of media is endless and there are thousands of examples of strong messages within these art forms. Media may serve the purposes of entertainment and joy, but it also has much more significant purposes than what initially meets the eye. Media serves to be thought-provoking, to make us look at the world around us and think: what can I do to make a difference? This serves the basis for education, catching our attention in ways we never thought were possible and making us look at the world around us from a different perspective. Media brings us together, making us desire change, use our voice and create a world we want to be proud of. Thus, media is much more than something to entertain. It works to educate, to reach people and it is only a bonus if you get a laugh or a catchy beat from it too.

In Defense of a Riverdale Education

by Tess O‘Regan

‘made fun of a lot’. With its fantastical plots––ranging from Dungeons & Dragons inspired cults to time-travelling angels––Riverdale was an unconventional teen drama, to say the least, and garnered criticism online from casual viewers and press alike. For fans of the show like myself, however, that same ‘absurdity and campiness’ was Riverdale’s biggest attractor. It was doing something other teen shows at the time weren’t: it was having fun. ‘We’re a comic book’, Camila Mendes (Veronica Lodge) pointed out in the same Vulture article, stating that showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa wasn’t interested in emulating productions like Euphoria (2019-present): ‘he wanted something more outlandish.’

The biggest Oscar nomination snub this year is not, contrary to popular belief, Greta Gerwig. It’s Charles Melton. Melton was nominated at the Golden Globes for playing Joe Yoo in Todd Haynes’ latest film May December (2023), and should have received a nod from the Academy as well for his standout performance. But it wasn’t this oversight that put the young star in the headlines recently. No, he made the news because of something he told i–D Magazine when talking about his six year run playing Reggie Mantle on the teen drama Riverdale (2017-2023).

‘Riverdale […] was my Julliard’, Melton asserted when asked how he prepared for his performance in Haynes’ film. The Juilliard School is considered one of the leading colleges globally for performing arts. That Melton would equate his time playing Reggie on the CW and Netflix co-produced teen drama to an education from a prestigious school was outrageous to many. Why? Well, as Melton’s co-star Lili Reinhart (Betty Cooper) told Vulture last year, the show was

If you’re looking for realism, for consistent characterisation, or for plots that “make sense”, don’t go looking for them in Riverdale. You won’t find them. What you will find are: Shakespearian levels of ridiculous dialogue, a meta-textual narrative that knows the plot is incomprehensible, insanely good costuming, oh! and a seasonal musical episode. Sometimes two musical episodes. It’s the most overused buzzword of the last three decades, but Riverdale genuinely was postmodern. It was the Casablanca (1943) of our time. ‘Every story plays upon one or more archetypes,’ Umberto Eco writes in an article on intertextual collage, ‘But Casablanca is not satisfied with that: it uses them all.’ So did Riverdale. In its 137 episode run it referenced everything from Twin Peaks to Edgar Allen Poe, from an article about author Donna Tartt’s college years to Julius Caesar, and, yes: Casablanca, multiple times. Riverdale cannot be watched in isolation, because it is in conversation with everything. As Mendes puts it: ‘We’ve done so much that anytime we […] go into a new project, it’s like, I’ve done a version

of this on Riverdale.’ While Riverdale was a labyrinth of intertextuality for its fans, it was a seven year long masterclass in adaptability for its stars.

In January, Fool Me Once (2024) star Michelle Keegan caused a stir in the British press when she credited her acting ability to her years working on the soap opera Coronation Street. ‘[I]t’s the best learning platform you can ever do as an actor’, Keegan told the Happy Place podcast,‘filming three different story lines at one time, with three different directors, not in chronological order…you have to be on your game.’ Her sentiment echoes that of Melton’s in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. For him the experience of ‘working with nearly 100 directors’ on Riverdale furnished him with a ‘foundation––as, like, my acting school’––to ‘come to a set like Todd Haynes’ and just completely let go’. It’s not just Keegan and Melton that got their starts on TV. Before The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Guy Pearce was known for playing Mike Young on Neighbours Gladiator star, and Pearce’s co-star in L.A. Confidential, Russell Crowe also served his time on several Australian soaps before landing his first lead role. Evidently, there’s something about soaps that makes stars.

I say “something”, but it’s not a mystical secret ingredient that produces strong actors from soap sets; it’s experience. Filming a season of Riverdale took ‘[t]en months out of the year, 22 episodes, eight to 10 days [sic.] to film one episode.’ For reference: an academic year at Julliard is eight months long, their Bachelors degrees take four years to complete. Melton spent six years playing Reggie on Riverdale, enough time to get a Masters. I don’t want to imply that university is a waste of time. What I am saying is we shouldn’t dismiss or devalue practical education. If you do the maths, Melton has twenty-eight more months of acting experience than a typical Juilliard graduate. Yet he’s been dismissed because his alma mater isn’t an Ivy League adjacent college, but a sneered-upon TV show from the 2010s.

Our education system is classist. I know: Shock! Horror! No one’s ever said that before! But it’s true. Even in a career like acting, where on-set experience should carry as much weight as a degree, it very often doesn’t. Especially if that experience was gained from a “low” cultural production. Michelle Keegan correctly points out that soap operas are treated with a lot of snobbery because of their draw with working class audiences. While Riverdale’s demographic differs from that typical of nationally broadcast soaps, its status as a CW show means the majority of its audience are young women, placing it in a similar sphere with critics. That of “trashy, throw-away culture”. Whether it’s a low income household, or young women and queer people, neither group is particularly respected in society; their interests are cast aside as worthless and unimportant. An institution like Julliard however, thrives under the same system.

This discrimination might be a contributor to the current dearth we’re seeing in long form TV. August marked the end of Riverdale’s seven season run. As Madelaine Petsch (Cheryl Blossom) remembers in the cast interview with Vulture, Luke Perry told her that the twenty-two episodes a series programme would be ‘the last of its kind.’ In the same interview, Disney Channel alumnus Cole Sprouse observed: ‘This [kind of programme] used to be how every actor got their start.’ Used to be. Neighbours was nearly dropped from its programming in 2022, before being picked up again by Amazon Freevee for a provisional further two years. It’s unclear whether it will be renewed again. Long form television is dying away, and soaps and teen dramas are the first casualties.

It’s a shame, but this is the landscape of on-demand streaming. May December was released on Netflix last Christmas after a limited theatrical release but, without Riverdale, Haynes’ film wouldn’t be half the success it is. So no, Charles Melton didn’t get a Julliard education on the set of Riverdale. Arguably, he got something much rarer: six years experience on a weekly programme, where intertextual borrowing of everything from cinematic classics to soaps prepared him for all that Hollywood could throw in his way.

i-D Magazine, 19th December 2023.

Alter, Rebecca. “Riverdale Cast on the Ending of The CW’s Weird Teen Soap.” Vulture, Aug 15th 2023. Vulture.

Eco, Umberto. “Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage.” SubStance, Vol. 14, No.2, 1985, p. 6. Anolik, Lili. “The Secret Oral History of Bennington College.” Esquire, 28 May 2019.

Cotton, Fearne, host with guest Michelle Keegan. “Michelle Keegan: Imposter Syndrome, boundaries, and puzzles.” Happy Place. S24, E6. 8th January 2024. Verhoeven, Beatrice. “May December Star on How Riverdale Prepared Him for His Emotionally Complex Big-Screen Role.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27th December 2023. Hollywood Reporter. Happy Place.

Cotton, Fearne, host with guest Michelle Keegan. “Michelle Keegan: Imposter Syndrome, boundaries, and puzzles.” Happy Place. S24, E6. 8th January 2024. Verhoeven, Beatrice. “May December Star on How Riverdale Prepared Him for His Emotionally Complex Big-Screen Role.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27th December 2023. Hollywood Reporter. Happy Place.

Why you should care about your data: a syllabus for the internet by Tess O’Regan

Do you click “Accept Cookies” every time you enter a new website? Do you worry about your ever shortening attention span, your ever increasing attachment to your phone? Or are you frustrated by the marathon of ads that meet you whenever you open YouTube? Last year I cracked. Sick of pop-ups and ads and hyper specific article recommendations, I switched browsers to Firefox. Yes, Firefox; that outdated thing, where you can easily install a battalion of add-ons that will fight off any forces that want to track your data or shove another perfume ad in front of you. When I told friends about my new commitment to data security, the general reaction was: “But you have nothing to hide.” Sure, I’m not committing felonies or breaking any major laws when I’m online, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to preserve my privacy. Privacy is a universal human right , but today we have less of it than ever. We willingly broadcast our private lives on social media, and most people are aware that their data is being bought and sold to advertisers and other organisations. But why should we care? Below is a list of media (ranging from articles and films to books and YouTube videos) that considers: the place of social media in daily life; surveillance culture; and the dangers we face when technological tools fall into the wrong hands.

Jennings, Rebecca. “Everyone’s a sellout now.” Vox, 1 February 2024. (Available online at www.vox.com)

Jennings’ article examines how anti-sellout culture has sold out, addressing the pressure to market oneself online. She’s not just talking about artists styling themselves to fit into a certain “niche” on TikTok, but even the mundane expectation to consistently update you LinkedIn profile. No one, as Jennings puts it, can ‘escape the tyranny of the personal brand.’

Swanson, Barrett. “The Anxiety of Influencers: Educating the TikTok Generation.” Harpers Magazine, June 2021. (Available online at harpers.org)

This 8,000 word story follows the five days Swanson spent in an influencer clubhouse in L.A. With nihilistic, over-privileged characters straight out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, it’s hard to believe this is a nonfiction piece. Swanson contemplates the rise of misinformation, anti-intellectualism, and short form media while learning TikTok dances and failing to organise a game of basketball.

Citizenfour. Directed by Laura Poitras, featuring Edward Snowden. HBO Documentary Films, 2014.

Most of us would be a bit young to remember, but in 2013 former NSA employee Edward Snowden contacted several journalists, including Laura Poitras, about the USA’s secret surveillance of citizens. Citizenfour documents Poitras’ time with Snowden as they broke the story to the public. The documentary emphasises how a person’s data can be used against them to curtail freedom of speech.

Zuboff, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Profile Books, 2019.

This is a long book, but sometimes just dipping in for a chapter can be valuable. And Zuboff’s ideas are very valuable. Ironically endorsed by then US president Barack Obama, Zuboff’s book gives context for Snowden’s whistleblowing, meditating on the banal evil of profit-driven digital media in everyday life.

Barker, Pat. The Eye in the Door. Viking Press, 1993. OR Lynch, Paul. Prophet Song. Oneworld Publications, 2023.

Published thirty years apart and set at opposite ends of the century, both novels capture the oppressive atmosphere of a state panopticon. Barker’s book is a beautiful read but might be too much of a commitment if you haven’t already read the first book in her Regeneration trilogy. Last year’s Booker Prize Winner might prove more accessible, illustrating how an authoritarian government can leverage technology against its citizens, monitoring them everywhere they go.

American Vandal. Created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, Netflix, 2017-2018.

A mockumentary mainly concerned with parodying true-crime documentaries, Perrault and Yacenda’s show also has a lot to say about the justice system and the limitations and morality of screen media. It’s also just very funny.

“Bo Burnham vs Jeff Bezos.” YouTube, uploaded by CJtheX, 20 August 2021.

This video is ostensibly about one song from Bo Burnham’s Inside (2021). It is two and a half hours long. A video essay about Bezos turns into an existential philosophical debate about privacy, cookies, and what the internet is doing to our souls.Watch it.

Review of Down the Drain by Julia Fox

Features Editor Sarah O’Mahony delves into Julia Fox’s story of survival. It is a debut novel with an edge. Although like us all it has its flaws, it defies expectation.

Julia Fox is not our saviour. If you are acquainted with her public persona she does not attempt to be inspirational, Instagrammable or even attractive (although this is difficult as she is a beautiful woman). What Julia does, especially in Down the Drain, is ask us to open our mind. As narrator she lays out her suffering, her anger, her friendships, and dysfunction for the reader. She worked as a powerful dominatrix but also was a victim of domestic abuse. There is no neat marketable narrative, only reality.

As expected, the book features Julia’s relationship with Kanye West (who is referred to as ‘the artist’, undoubtedly for legal reasons). I will admit this was one of the main reasons I was drawn to the book. I wanted to find out what really happened. As narrator Julia paints how a sense of adventure and excitement quickly faded. How her joy shifted to feeling controlled and suffocated. As it turns out this storyline is the least interesting of all featured in this auto-biography. It is only a blip in the whirlwind of Julia’s life. The jewels of the book are instead: her younger years in Italy, Julia’s money making spirit as a dominatrix and business owner, her beautiful female relationships, her honest accounts of her more villainous moments and her descriptions of addiction, both her own and others’.

The themes of power and control are strung through the entire book. Julia’s addiction is one element of this. Her use of drugs begins innocently by taking MDMA, slipped to her by her boyfriend ‘Ace’ while a teenager. Julia’s drug use is then enabled for many years through a cycle of difficult situations and lucky breaks. Scenes of her car getting searched while she was in possession of heroin, descriptions of jail before getting ‘booked’ i.e. the period when you can get bailed out, interactions with a gang in Detroit, her friends’ deaths and her own overdoses flitter across the pages. When she does finally end up in court, she is given a warning that upon her return she will receive a sentence of ‘a mandatory year in prison’. This threat follows us as she approaches danger again and again. Each time the story calms, we think ‘Finally this is an opportunity for her to get clean’. However, a new challenge or male abuser almost always comes into the picture. It’s difficult to not feel an extreme sense of loss as this all unfolds.

I have no experience of addiction, so I will not attempt to psychoanalyse Julia too much. To speak generally, her relationship with drugs, much like her personal relationships, ensnares her while she survives against all odds. As narrator Julia does not analyse her story enough. Her words are image heavy, lacking a deeper introspection at times. However, the detail she paints into certain elements of the book such as her addiction make up for this. Although unsaid, it is clear Julia understands the theme of power is central to her story. From dominating men in the sex dungeons of New York to being Kanye West’s own personal dress up doll and being controlled by heroin, it’s unavoidable. The book really is Julia against the world and her survival despite the powers at be is incredible.

The aspect of the book I connected with the most was Julia’s relationships. The book is almost a case study on how the veil of excitement in certain romantic relationships can quickly fall, revealing anxiety, fear and abuse. She is most successful as a narrator when speaking about the dysfunction in her past relationships. Here she presents us with strong imagery disclosing nitty gritty details as well as matured understandings of what she has experienced. It is difficult to read on as Julia experiences abuse and becomes hardened to the world. Nonetheless, it is well written and I appreciated how she did not shy away from tough details.

Julia was a victim. There is no repackaging this and there is also no ‘perfect victim’ and she makes this clear. This is why I love this book. She tells us, yeah that guy or situation or drug put me through hell and destroyed me. Nevertheless, she will not now live her life according to expectations. She doesn’t care if it stops you from sympathising with her. I don’t need your sympathy, you wimp, she would probably say. There is no perfect victim or drug addict or daughter or business owner, in Julia’s case. Just like in each of our cases. There is just us.

Hard, Shiny, and Empty: A Review of Mean Girls (2024)

by Sydney Marhefsky

Mean Girls (2024), the movie adaptation of the stage musical based on the original 2004 film, is clearly trying to send a message. This aim to educate is very reminiscent of the 2004 film (as is much else in this adaptation), but the lessons once delivered with dry sarcasm are now declared with almost PSA-like cheesiness. However, there’s no denying that the critiques of patriar chy, particularly when it’s wielded by women against other women, are still salient today, and attempts to bring these ideas to new generations should be commended. Unfortunately, this adaptation’s dependence on the 2004 film, in combination with the softening of its edges into a more family-friendly, educational veneer, gives way to serious issues in terms of coherence, character, and themes.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mean Girls (2024) relies heavily on nostalgia for the original 2004 film, as several iconic lines and bits appear virtually un changed. While you can hardly expect a Mean Girls adaptation to include no such references (Is it even Mean Girls if there’s no “On Wednesdays, we wear pink”?), there are more than a few instances where leaving the jokes entirely intact renders them almost nonsensical within the different context of the adaptation. Cady’s reminiscence of the day she told Aaron the date (It was October 3rd) makes sense in the 2004 movie, as she had only engaged in brief small talk with Aaron and was largely invisible to him. However, in the 2024 adaptation, Cady has already had several conversations with Aaron when the October 3rd bit occurs. While in the original context the joke comedically highlights Cady’s obsessive teenage crush on someone she barely knows, within the context of the adaptation the joke falls flat. Why does Cady care so much about this minor exchange when she’s had much more substantial interactions with him? The answer, it seems, is simply because the filmmakers felt that this well-known line had to make an appearance, even if it no longer makes sense in the story they’re telling.

While some elements from the 2004 film are crammed into a pretty, but ill-fitting new context, others are haphazardly altered with little thought to the implications for its characters and themes. Cady’s narration serves a vital purpose in the 2004 film, as it establishes the frame of teenage social dynamics as akin to the behavior of wild animals and illustrates Cady’s intelligence and perceptiveness, which are key to her position as a credible threat to Regina George. Though the shift in genre from a comedy to a musical comedy provides a fruitful opportunity to deliver Cady’s thoughts and observations through song, the adaptation discards the vast majority

of her internal monologue, making Cady a much less intelligent character. Indeed, Cady doesn’t even get to make the comparison between animals and high school ers herself, as it is instead delivered by Janis and Damien in their warning to Cady about Regina’s viciousness on “Apex Predator.” Consequently, Cady’s usurpation of Regina feels less like the result of Cady’s mastery of mean-girl tactics– and her deliberate choice to use them– and more like an outcome arising from circum stances she was placed in by other people. The removal of Cady’s narration and its lackluster replacement has the effect of stripping Cady’s character of her cleverness and agency.

Similarly, the adaptation removes much of the moral nuances from its characters, reducing its complex ity to the simplicity of a child’s parable. This flattening of characters is particularly evident with the changes made to Janis, who originally orchestrated the plot to bring down Regina. Janis is almost entirely absolved of her culpability for the events of the film and is portrayed as an uncomplicatedly ‘good’ character, as exemplified by the triumphant, feel-good, anti-mean girl behavior track, “I’d Rather Be Me.” The song positions Janis as a passive vic tim who was screwed over by her best friend, which has “happened to [her] twice,” and as someone who refuses to sink to their level, who “won’t twist in knots to join [their] game.” Apparently, scheming to ruin someone’s social life in order to achieve vengeance for the social wrongs committed against you does not count as joining their game. Though it’s possible that this song was meant to be a turning point for Janis where she realizes the errors in her previous actions, the lyrics seem to indicate that standing up for herself whilst avoiding two-faced behavior has been her stance all along, as it’s described as her “se cret strategy” that “always works.” The added scene where Janis, Cady and Damien celebrate Regina and Aaron’s breakup further diminishes Janis’ culpability, as she declares that they should stop their sabotage because justice has been served, standing in sharp contrast to the 2004 film, in which the scheming only stops because Regina has nothing more to lose and Janis explicitly acknowledges herself as a mean girl. Not only does the total absolution of Janis lessen the complexity of the film, it arguably undermines its anti-bullying message, as the underhanded machinations that Cady, Damien, and Janis engage in are portrayed, to some extent, as serving justice, rather than countermeasures deployed by one mean girl against another.

Indeed, the softening of characters into more likable and morally good forms doesn’t only inadvertently undermine the film’s anti-bullying stance, it also contradicts its ostensibly feminist position by making Aaron into a more endearing love interest. In the 2004 film Aaron has limited interactions with Cady and gets back together with Regina after she tells him a series of embarrassing lies about her. The character has full agency over his decision; He either believes Regina’s lies, partly due to his belief in the stereotypes around homeschooled students, or he’s skeptical of Regina’s words but interprets her lying as stemming from jealousy, indicating that she still has

power. Rather than the bemused annoyance Aaron meets Regina with in the 2004 film, Aaron’s expression shifts from wariness and confusion to a blank, entranced stare. Instead of manipulating his existing motivations, emotions, and biases, Regina seems to bewitch him, bending his contrary will to her own through the mystical power of her sex appeal. Aaron no longer has any agency in his reunification with Regina: He simply couldn’t help himself. As a result of Aaron’s more charming qualities, Regina takes the blame for his decision to get back together with her, with the film indulging in misogynist tropes to a greater extent than its counterpart from twenty years ago. Mean Girls (2024) is unsuccessful in providing substance beneath its shiny facade, as its reliance on warm feelings of nostalgia and its simplification of its characters undermine its attempts at positive messaging. Ultimately, the film’s problems largely stem from its failure to treat its audience with respect, as the film instead prioritizes comfort, with the familiar setting, predictable plot, and uncomplicated characters making it almost like a fable. If there’s one thing to learn from Mean Girls (2024), it’s that learning takes place in the complicated, sometimes uncomfortable parts of stories. Smoothing out its folds may make a story more agreeable, but it also makes it less human.

A NEW IRELAND

Guns blazing, smoke rising.

Imminent death approaching, but it wasn’t enough.

With no guns and few men, the rebellion was bound to fail.

But they believed in blood sacrifice, liberty was their grail.

Bullet after bullet, man after man.

Those who fought, fought for their land.

The air was thick, and the floor would shake.

Bullets would fire, Yet, they’d never break.

They fought for their independence, they fought for their freedom, they fought for their lives; in the end they were beaten.

Guns were silenced, smoke had passed.

A new Ireland emerged, Freedom in their grasp.

The Game

by Lorraine Casey

The roar of the crowd rings in his ears, as he sends the sliotar soaring, skillfully skywards, skimming over the bar, He’s in Croke Park, this Sunday morning. The stands lie empty, voids catching the wind, echoing hollow pucks of the hurl, the push is in his heart, adrenaline pumping, majestic strikes propelling the pearl. She drives against the baltic blasts, that hail diagonally from the Atlantic, battling defenders, slipping gracefully past, that All-Ireland win, a dream romantic. The faceless stands do not faze her, She is well-used to the paucity of people, it fuels the steel determination within her, to show young eyes that she is equal.

Muddied and grass-stained, the boots are years-worn, from the forward to the back line, flying colours with roots generations strong, a fiery love and passion, passed through time.

I wish for the knowledge of Earth and Sky

By Ava Palmer

I want to be a renaissance woman.

To learn astronomy, chemistry, creative writing, to name but a few.

I wish to be Cleopatra in the Library of Alexandria. Or Galileo, gazing at the cosmos through a primitive telescope, to be Mary Shelley, writing Frankenstein in Geneva, Or a scientist in a modern-day lab, conducting research, armed with a pipette and a microscope. I live in a world with information at my fingertips, Yet, when my hand goes to write, My pen is silent.

My muse has bereft me.

I have committed myself to the sciences, and it has led me away from what once came easy.

Now, when I write, it is water flowing uphill.

I thought,

I could do both, yet my mind is too full. My time too short.

To pick one, science or the arts, is like choosing between drinking water, or breathing air.

They have never felt more separate, we need both to survive.

Alas, I cannot know everything, What can a person do, In a world too vast to know?

PE on a Thursday Morning

By Rebecca Jane Parke

PE on a Thursday morning. that English test next Monday, hopefully,

I remember all those Heaney quotes.

Reading before class, ignoring their disapproving looks, daydreaming about achievements, that I have yet to achieve.

Occasionally, my mind forgets, that those misspent days are done.

The loneliness, the dread, the sunrise filling the ridiculously big windows, reminding you that, somehow there is more than this place.

As I sit through my lectures, learning more than learned in school, those memories still pulsing through my veins.

As I read in the library, this present is inevitably entwined with that past, and somehow, that prompts me, to turn another page.

Lessons in anatomy

By Ellen Ní Chonchúir

I don’t think I was born with the fear of the skeleton that my skin surrounds; of the creaking bones encased within mesmooth and ivory and splitting.

I learned to dread the crunch of you chewing me to dust. I learned to trust the words I bathed in.

I cannot wash you from my head. I cannot bring you back. the sodden sting of softening skin. my arms, gnarled branches that you hang from, swinging your weight till I heave, and I sigh, and I crack.

River Lee

By Jack McDonogh

There is a great tree, Upon the banks of the Lee,

A home where thrush and robin sing, Where the chirps of birds do ring.

A heron waiting patiently, Awaiting the finest catch, Perched along the riverbed, Standing tall, like the oak of old.

A kingfisher flies by,

Beating its wings with vigorous joy,

As he swirls through the air,

A sight so rare, Gone by the wind is he.

As the rapids splash around,

An otter dives deep looking for food,

Performing gymnastics against the current, catching a crayfish to bring ashore.

As I follow his bubbles I see,

A green mallard staring at me, His feathers so clean and colourful, Like a splash of paint, on the dark water canvas.

I then fix my gaze on an elegant swan, Whose wings are like arrows pointing to a bright sky,

As she gently pushes through the water. In her wake I can see a reflection, A reflection of Irelands fullest beauty.

As I look upon the Lee, It’s hard not to see,

A civilisation in which we roam, A place wildlife may call home.

Educate me

By Ruby Kloskowski

“I Love You”, a phrase of supremacy, it builds and breaks all. My words forgotten objects Thrown to lost and found.

Words like subtitles, that got lost in translation. The phrase never felt true to me, ‘til I saw you. Gazing into your eyes, the words tumble in my mind, aching to escape.

Yet now, these words become daunting. With you I feel lost within their power, I choke them back. Reserve them.

I want you to educate me, to guide me through their meaning. I want to learn what it feels like to love.

Gazing into your eyes, I want you to mould them. To shape these uncertain words into their defined meaning.

Through roaring highs and solemn lows. Through the meandering passing of time. Their childlike undermined destination slowly appointed.

In the end, I want to remember that first gaze, those uncertain words. Knowing I had placed them in the right hands all along, and all it took was the right teacher and time.

The teacher who shaped and found a home within their hands, for these words, my words. So that they may never be lost again.

Restless

By Simon Dishlieva

For

a second, all I could hear was the branches.

Swaying in exhaustion, by the soundless wind. Their leaves wild, brushing against one another in a desperate effort of calmness. As the wind, drying my eyes clear, the air became heavy with droplets of sour thoughts and dizzy recollections.

Nothing had changed, yet, gazing upon the open skies, the wail of the loons arched bigger, echoing through my fingertips.

As the clouds burned monochrome, they overcrowd the trees, skipping through the leaves with a strained sigh. Soft, my breath slows its pace. In the haze of stillness, all was clear now, as I gazed.

O S C A R’ S

O B S E R V A T I O N S

A poem on love - both a difficult and pleasant learning experience

by Lorraine Casey

At the door, he holds an umbrella high,

As they huddle close from the rain,

At the table, she gracefully grips his thigh, Amidst bubbling laughter, yet again.

He looks at her, as though she is the only one,

To all else he is blind, casting others to sea,

To her, he is the moon, the stars and sun, They fit just right, as though meant to be.

Cheeks flush, as pints upon pints are poured, While tea light flames dance to illuminate faces, She rests fondly in the nook of his shoulder,

While upon hers, his hand, gently graces.

And when the shutters begin to languidly lower, And the conversation ebbs onto the street,

On her back, a guiding hand will hover, As moonlight delicately reflects on her cheek.

And so, they amber home, together moulded as one, As streetlight shadows skim their shape,

While pearly white orbs bounce along cobbles

They are falling in, so deep, no escape.

There is no one else they would rather,

To be with breathing life into word of Wilde : “Life is one fool thing after another, Whereas love is two fool things after each other.” Oct. ‘23

Grandmother’s Table

By Ellen Ní Chonchúir

At my Grandmother’s table, I find solace, Amidst the countryside’s grace. Lessons whispered through the rustling trees, In the tulip fields, where the soul finds ease.

With flour on our hands, she taught me

The secret of homemade pies. Each slice of apple, placed with care, As it baked, filling the air its sweet perfume, She whispered secrets, dispelling gloom.

In the art of baking, I leaned life’s sweet mastery, A blend of patience, love and heart.

Crossing my T’s, dotting my I’s, In her gaze, wisdom deeply lies. Each page turned, a journey persists, In the sanctuary of this world.

She speaks in tongues of Wollstonecraft’s fervor, In literature’s embrace, where minds stir and unfurl. With every turn of page, a symphony untold, In the whispers of Austen’s prose, wisdom unfolds.

Where knowledge blooms in hidden nooks, Jane’s caged bird metaphor hooks. With each story, a new truth grows. In the quiet of the tulip filled world.

Within the pages, the caged bird sings, Its longing melody, profound it brings. Lessons woven, in ink and quill. In the stillness, hearts find their fill.

The countryside whispers, secrets profound, lessons of life in every sound.

Grandmother’s wisdom, a timeless guide, In her presence, I effortlessly glide.

Through the tulip fields we wander, Her teachings, a beacon to ponder.

Mature trees stand tall and wise, Reflecting the depth, in her tender eyes.

In the embrace of nature’s arms, I learn. I grow. I find.

At my grandmother’s table, I’m taught to see, The beauty of education, wild and free.

by Eoin Palmer

Marc Woodard

The Race to the Bottom: HOUSING FOR UCC STUDENTS

In September Features Editor Sarah O’Mahony interviewed three UCC students about their experiences seeking accommodation for the current academic year. As the university’s second semester hurtles towards the finish line, the housing race for the academic year 2024/2025 has long begun. Will September 2024 be déjà vu or is there any hope?

When I spoke to Brian O’Kane, who is studying a Masters in Human Rights Law, he had been struggling to find accommodation for the present academic year. He had been served an eviction notice for a rented property that had been taken off the market by the landlord. It takes Brian about three hours every day to get to and from his family home in Tower to UCC (with infrequent and unreliable buses not helping). Brian shared that he was exhausted from struggling with buses last year to relentless housing applications and unregulated digs. “Last winter while I was commuting I became unwell for two months from waiting out in the cold for buses that were delayed or did not come. As a result, I had to reschedule two of my final year undergraduate exams,’ he said.

Throughout the summer he applied to three or four houses and apartments every day with little to no response. “My experience with Daft and Studentpad could only be described as a waste of time. Adverts are posted and removed within hours due to demand.”

The Masters student’s experience with digs or the rent-a-room scheme has been equally shocking. A potential landlord explained restrictions would include Brian vacating the property at short notice for random periods and limiting guests to one room downstairs only. Despite the long list of arbitrary conditions attached, the room was advertised at €500 a month.

Brian’s experience is not uncommon. Recommendations by the Union of Students Ireland have called for legislation to regulate who can apply to provide digs. The Union states that those living in digs have “a complete lack of rights.”

Speaking with Barbora Soukupová, a Data Science Masters student from Pilsen, Czechia in September, she knew all too well of the limitations of digs in Ireland. “From the beginning I knew I was not going to sign up to digs because I was aware of the number of scams happening and the issues people were facing,” she told Motley.

Barbra also shared that due to her IT background, she quickly spotted the signs of scams on the Facebook accommodation groups she joined. “The Telegram and Whatsapp links on posts made me extremely suspicious. Practically every post seemed dodgy.” This is a common occurrence with desperate students and a small supply of houses proving the perfect mix for scammers.

Like many international students she stumbled through housing group chats on Facebook along with UCC campus and private student accommodation websites for months, getting to grips with her room hunt. After applying to the UCC campus lottery she was then rejected from three private student accommodation

complexes due to demand as well as applications closing early.

UCC students’ most affordable option is campus accommodation. However, with a total of 1,536 beds offered through a lottery system each year, the odds are not in your favour. If you do not succeed, you are faced with applying to private purpose-built accommodation which can cost anything up to €1,500 a month for the academic year.

Barbora shared that after receiving multiple rejections “panic mode was setting in.” Eventually, she was able to secure a spot in a more reasonably priced private student accommodation complex. However, Barbora had to pay a non-refundable deposit while waiting to find out if her application for UCC accommodation was successful.

“In terms of the luxury student accommodation in Cork city, I can’t imagine anyone using the facilities such as cinemas and games areas regularly. Why does it need to be so expensive? If UCC has 24,000 students, how are they being housed if this is what they are dealing with?”

Em is another masters student who is studying Creative Writing. At the time of this interview they were homeless and were sleeping on a friend’s couch with their personal belongings stored in various houses. “This is significantly impacting my mental health as well as my postgraduate studies. I was late to my first class this week and I can only see things getting worse.”

Over the summer Em arranged with a landlord that they would take a room in their house in September. Weeks later, the landlord changed their mind, leaving Em stranded and in fear of paying higher rent elsewhere. They explained that finding a different room so close to September would likely be much more expensive. “It is a significant financial burden to carry.”

The week we spoke they attended four viewings. Em shared their worries that they may be discriminated against as a parent and member of the queer or LGBTQ+ community. The current average rent in Cork city is listed on Daft. ie as €1,793. It is a competitive environment for affordable housing, especially for those in minority groups.

“The university needs to sort out access to accommodation for students. I, like many others, was rejected from campus accommodation. I am now once again struggling to find a similarly priced alternative. This time at one of the worst periods in the year.”

According to UCC’s Residential Services they are “actively seeking support from the Cork community to house UCC students for seven days a week in digs-style accommodation and the Accommodation and Community Life Office is currently supporting students in their searches.”

Sources have shared that leases for certain private houses around the College Road area for September 2024 are being set at rates of €700-€800 per person per month. More broadly, the Higher Education Authority of Ireland estimates there is a nationwide shortfall of at least 25,000 beds for full-time students.

How does this change? Year after year we read online about the latest luxury accommodation built in Cork city. We hear politicians speak about digs and expensive luxury complexes as catch-all solutions to the crisis. Again and again the UCC community welcomes an incumbent Student Union who advocates for student housing. The light at the end of the tunnel has yet to appear.

Our generation carries the burdens of the climate crisis and international unrest. Nationally, young people are attempting to help heal the wounds of Ireland’s dark past, from the mother and baby homes to the Troubles. We face current issues such as attacks on our democracy by the growth of right wing parties like Ireland First. What does the future of Ireland look like if we do not prioritise the welfare of our young people? Who are we as a country if we allow them to inherit all our problems while damaging their quality of life?

Beyond Comprehension: My Personal Perspective on Palestine

Deputy Editor in Chief Jessica Anne Rose speaks about desensitisation to war in our globalised world. How do we scroll past clips of violence and carry on with our lives?

War becomes more difficult to comprehend as I get older. I thought it would be the opposite but instead the world feels dystopian as I flick through social media. A video edit of The Hunger Games, a video of starving refugees, a video of children opening their piles of Christmas presents - it’s jarring how normal this dichotomy has become to us and how we’ve learned that we have no choice but to stomach the discomfort. I was not taught what to do about this in school nor college, and despite the amount I read and research I am still struggling to understand what to do. I understand none of this.

Everyday I wake up and remember the fact that I am safe and alive, others are not, and neither of us deserve to live more than the other. A few hours away by plane, a mere tap on my Snapchat map away, people are starving and dying and I cannot do anything. I sign the petitions, I donate where I can, I reshare messages or infographics about what is going on and I sit listlessly afterwards knowing I have not stopped the war in Palestine. I have not saved any lives, and I can’t. I walk the dog with my dad and look around at the houses, imagining them falling to rubble, the sky turning yellow from the dust, all of us who survived completely isolated and alone in tents while what remains of our overrun hospitals are targeted by bombs. It’s not an impossible thought. When Russia invaded Ukraine I thought, surely, the U.N. will come together and overrule all of this. But it continues, and people continue to call for help, and I cannot do anything outside of what I have already done. I look at my cousins and thank whatever gods or God or Universe we have that all they have to worry about is homework but it doesn’t stop the anxiety because what if one day, we are in the same position?

We would share the same fate as Ukraine and Palestine and be forced to try to go on ourselves. What if it was us who were watching our homes and cities erased, our families disappear, watching the USA Home of the Free veto a ceasefire against thirteen other members of the U.N. (Great Britain abstaining from voting), wondering why any country possesses such power to overrule a unanimous vote. The world keeps turning and everyone keeps tutting at how terrible the situation is and it doesn’t end. It makes me feel like I’m going insane and everyday without a ceasefire teaches me how alone we all are. By some chance I do not live in a war torn country - I was lucky again to not be born in the North during the Troubles - and this grants me many luxuries. Warm showers, getting together with friends, playing video games or simply doing nothing at all in the safety of my home. The biggest luxury I have is the ability to turn off the news, to turn off my phone, and to distance myself from what is happening when it starts to make me dizzy. But things continue to happen whether I am watching or not.

Christmas felt a bit surreal, opening presents and eating so much food when people in Gaza have started to starve and die from starvation and wounds as well as the bombings. I think about my Jewish friends torn between two worlds but still trying to be there for Palestinians, despite the amount of antisemitism this war will cause. Nobody is winning. There is nothing gained. Should Israel take over Palestine? All they have is a ruined wasteland full of traumatised people, the majority of whom civilians, who had nothing to do with this war. If they survive and it ends, what then? Where do they go? People marched in Dublin condemning immigrants by burning buildings and trains, and Irish Twitter is rife with anti-immigrant propaganda. There are people camping down the road from my house because they don’t want immigrants to live here. What kind of life would a Palestinian refugee have in a world like this, with hatred following them from country to country no matter where they seek asylum?

Maybe this is adulthood. Maybe my parents and my grandparents all experienced the same realisation about war when they were my age, maybe they learned how to desensitise themselves from it when it became too much, maybe they saw just as much violence throughout the world as I see today. I just think about never being able to live in Ireland again, to have to live somewhere with a foreign language and customs and food where I was not wanted, longing for the feeling of normality only home can bring. But home would not exist anymore. Why do I get to live when others die? Why was it another country that went to war and not mine? What can I do? I sign the petitions, I donate where I can, I reshare messages or infographics about what is going on and I turn my phone off when I realise I can’t do anything more. Yesterday it was Ukraine, today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be somewhere else, and we will all grieve for a certain amount of time and then move on because there is nothing more we can give or take.

My Uni Life: AN INTERVIEW WITH MY NOW RTÉ FAMOUS FRIEND, THÉRÈSE KENIRY

Deputy Editor Jessica Anne Rose sat down with her friend Thérèse who graduated from UCC with a BA in Irish and History in early 2023. During her final year, she was followed by RTÉ for their second series of ‘My Uni Life’, where she juggled the stress of final year and being chairperson of the UCC Choral Society. Thérèse is now studying for a PME in primary school teaching in Mary Immaculate College, and despite UCC not being her first choice, she frequently tells me that going here is one of the best things that has ever happened to her.

For the context of the interview, can you give readers a brief summary of what the documentary series is about?

My Uni Life is a show on RTÉ1 that covers all aspects of university life. I was on the show to promote clubs and societies and the benefits that they add to your university experience, but there are also other students, lecturers, gardeners and university employees on the show. The show covers all or most of the cogs that make the university machine go around.

What made you want to take part in the series? Was there anything in particular you wanted people to see/hear about?

A few people thought that I had signed up to the show when in reality, they came to me! Not me in particular but rather the Choral Society which I was chairperson of at the time. I jumped at the chance to be on the show as I thought that it’d be great publicity for the society as we were looking to improve on our post-Covid numbers. I had heard of the series My Uni

Life already as the first season came out when I was in first or second year. It was just a really positive show and showed real students with relatable lives. College life can be daunting until you experience it and the show could help to get rid of some of that fear for those in secondary school or mature students.

When did you know you wanted to be a primary school teacher? Did you have any outside influences or did you always have an innate knowledge of what you wanted to do?

I was always told by everyone that I’d be a primary school teacher just like my mom and grandad and (almost) all of my uncles and aunts. I tried to go against it but I always found myself coming back to it. I loved drama and being a teacher in many ways is like acting. You have to make your lessons enjoyable and interactive and one of the easiest ways of doing that is being dramatic and over-emphasising every little thing. I feel like a children’s TV presenter most of the time except I’m sticking to a lesson plan and I have learning objectives that I need to accomplish in each lesson. I get to sing, be creative, and act whilst also studying and being mathematical and structured. Everything I love all mixed up in one career. And great holidays!

How was your UCC experience despite it not being your first choice university? How did your first semester as a college student feel?

I remember crying on my first day, but that was because it was my birthday and I was at home alone trying to log on to Canvas to watch my pre-recorded

lectures for the day. Covid first year life! I often regard my first semester at college as semester one of second year as it was the first time I was on campus doing in person lectures and tutorials, while also attending Choral Society committee meetings and rehearsals! The Choral Society really got me through my first year online so finally singing in person with all of these people that I knew for a year but never met was strange initially but so enjoyable.

What did you find the most challenging about your university experience both on and off campus?

Definitely actually attending college. Getting out of bed and dragging myself to 12pm lectures was hard back then... if only I knew that I’d be doing the PME five days a week from 9am till 6pm. I really found it hard to manage everything in my final year. Between college, being chairperson and working, it was hard to find time for myself to soak it all in. It was go-go-go until it was summer and then it was all over.

Tell us about you today! You’ve almost finished your first year in MIC and have spent time in the classroom - is it as you imagined?

It’s everything and more! I knew that I’d love it as I had worked in environments like it and it is going better than I had hoped it would. I really didn’t realise though how much work went into teaching. All the planning and prep and background knowledge. I spent 9 hours one day just printing and cutting and glueing and laminating... what little that was left in my savings account after quitting my job for the PME was spent on teaching supplies. But I get

to be creative and make things aesthetically pleasing so it’s almost as therapeutic for me as it is useful for the students.

Do you have any funny or memorable anecdotes from teaching and studying your current MA course?

I remember just finishing up my first inspection and being really pleased. I was then teaching PE and was told that one of the students didn’t enjoy PE so they would never take part. Because I was teaching and I was new and had all these different games this child shocked us all and did take part! I was so happy but I couldn’t acknowledge it as I didn’t want to scare them off. At the very end of the lesson, the child got hit with a bean bag straight to the face all while my inspector was upstairs waiting to give me feedback. So scary at the time but so funny now.

What words of wisdom do you have for prospective students who will soon experience university life?

Saying yes to new things is great, but also don’t be afraid to say no. You are allowed to back out of something for your wellbeing or just because you’ve changed your mind. Don’t let people guilt you into the wrong thing for you. It’s your life, not theirs.

Finally, how are you? How is life in general outside academia?

I’m good! Stressed about upcoming placements, exams and assignments (the Masters certainly feels like a Masters) but I know that it will all work out in the end. And I’ve finally booked another driving lesson so I almost feel like an adult. I’ll get there haha.

After participating in the race for accommodation for the last three years, I’ve decided to recall my experiences before I take my place at the starting line for the next one. As most of you probably know, one of the things that students transitioning from secondary to further education struggle with the most is the search for a place to stay. Moving to a new city by yourself can be daunting, even if it’s only a small one like Cork. While UCC own their own accommodation, they operate on a lottery basis to ensure that all students, both national and international, have an equal chance to grab their spot. The lotteries can be a nail-biting experience and while it’s worth trying to apply there’s no guarantee that you’ll be accepted.

First year allowed my friends and I the fortunate experience of finding a nice and relatively well priced (I use that term loosely) private student accommodation to live in. We loved it there so much that we decided to stay for our second year and had every intention of staying for our third. It is an unspoken rule that when looking for accommodation for the next academic year, you must start looking in the December of your current year if you don’t want the race to be a panicked sprint and more of a controlled run. We relied on the word of the management team where we lived at the time and foolishly did not apply anywhere else. You can imagine our shock when we got an email one Monday morning last April that began with ‘we regret to inform you’. That was when the panicked sprinting began.

This panic resulted in us all missing two days of college to form a panic room more fitting for the White House than our little kitchen. The semester’s end was fast approaching, we were all going home soon for the summer, and none of us had anywhere to live for third year. We reached out to the accommodation office in UCC who advised us about the one student accommodation left to open applications; this of course crashed like a Ticketmaster Taylor Swift sale within milliseconds. While I scoured the internet for any rooms available in houses or apartments, my roommates called over fifty landlord numbers we’d been offered by those trying to help. None were available.

Rooms and houses in places like College Road are like gold-dust these days because nobody ever wants to give them up in case they end up in the same situation as us. We had applied to the lottery in UCC but weren’t holding out hope based on previous years’ experiences. All the private student accommodations within our price range had sold out practically the moment they had opened for applications. Our only remaining options were the luxury private places that none of us could afford, but we were starting to run out of breath amidst summer exams and assessments and just wanted to feel some sense of security. They boasted luxuries such as gyms, in-house cinemas, game rooms, and study rooms; you’d need a magnifying glass to spot in the fine print that says you’d have to share your apartment kitchen with seven people (that would be a fun experience trying to cook eight dinners at night). Each person would have their

If You Want to Talk Education, You Have to Talk Accommodation

MARC WOODWARD

A commentary on my experience with accommodation during my time in UCC

OLIVE SMITH

Contributor Marc Woodward discusses the rat race for student accommodation and shares his own experiences. From the luxury accommodation complexes in our city to a general lack of stability, there’s a lot to address.

10, 000 10, 000 10, 000

own bathroom and underbed storage, but you’d all have to share one fridge. Once we got to the part in the application that showed the total figure for the nine months’ rent was over €10,000 (that included utility fees but not the cost of doing laundry, which is an extra €6 a go), we started to really panic. We couldn’t do this. We probably wouldn’t even earn that much money working the entire summer holidays doing forty-hour weeks without taking a single week off; and even if we did, that didn’t take into account the cost of college entry fees, or money for food for the year, or even the €6 to wash your clothes in the washers and dryers that aren’t included in the €900 utility fees. That money is mainly for the heating you can’t control.

Thankfully we didn’t end up somewhere like that. The lottery paid off and we got into somewhere that didn’t quite hit the €10,000 mark. It has luxury ‘perks’ such as temperamental stove induction hobs and fancy lifts that tell you what floor you’re on both as Gaeilge and in English. There’s a study room and a recreational room with a pool table and a big tv

that all seventy apartments have to share because they don’t have their own. In terms of mirrors there’s the small one in the bathroom that if you stand on your tippy toes in the shower before you go out, you can just about see your full outfit in. There’s always the option to call the lift up to your floor and utilise the fancy mirror in there but you must be quick, or the voice will start giving out to you as Gaeilge because you’re preventing the doors from closing.

We don’t want or need any of those things. We just want somewhere affordable to live that’s clean and warm. But those places don’t really exist anymore and the ones that do sell out faster than Beyoncé coming to Pairc Uí Chaoimh. Maybe one day they’ll realise that students don’t want, and also can’t afford luxury accommodation. Yet I remain doubtful because, as I write this, I’m looking out at the new accommodation built just down the road that claims studio apartments starting at €12,000 per head are the solution to the student housing crisis in Cork.

A Nation Muted: The Urgency of Rescuing Afghan Education

Contributor Farahnaz

Haidary who is a human rights and women’s activist discusses the plight of the Afghan people and the power of an educated woman.

Education, often hailed as the gateway to enlightenment and awareness, stands as an unassailable right for every individual across the globe. However, this universal truth finds itself contradicted in the war-torn landscape of Afghanistan. In a country marred by uncertainty, the fate of its people, particularly its resilient women, is determined not by merit or effort but by the unclaimed ownership of a nation caught in the throes of turmoil.

The Afghan people, a group of strong and beautiful individuals, are being forced to set aside their aspirations under the current government. The right to freedom of expression, entertainment, choosing a spouse, traveling, and, most importantly, the right to education, has been systematically stripped away from the population. This egregious deprivation is especially pronounced among Afghan women, for oppressors understand the transformative power of an educated woman on the fabric of society.

While the nation has faced dark days before, the strength and spirit of Afghan women has always been unwavering. In the face of discrimination, prejudice, and restrictions in the past, they fought for their rights. They stood against injustice, poverty, and hardship, whilst also completing education at a fast pace, bringing themselves closer to their goals.

Even amid the constant threat of explosions and suicide attacks in 2020 and 2021, the pursuit of education continued. The hallowed grounds of Syed Shahada School, Mawoud Academy, Kaaj Academy, and Kabul University bore witness to the sacrifices made for the sake of education. Despite the tragic circumstances, the indomitable spirit of the students prevailed.

The untold sacrifices of countless young men and women at the hands of these senseless attacks did not deter their peers. The resolve of the students was unyielding, with one of them making the ultimate sacrifice yet inspiring others to continue the fight for education. Nonetheless, 698 days have elapsed since Afghan girls were last allowed to attend school. In the aftermath of the Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021, the closure of schools for girls was announced just 34 days later, leaving a void in the lives of countless young minds.

Throughout the world, the end of a school year is celebrated with joy and relief. However, in Afghanistan, the conclusion of the school year brought tears to the eyes of girls who completed the sixth grade. For them, it marked the end of their right to an education. It is also crucial to acknowledge the young sons of Afghanistan who were martyred for the mere crime of seeking an education. Equally deserving of our attention are those who, despite having the right to education, are unable to pursue it due to the scarcity of opportunities and the inability to afford tuition fees.

There are also young boys who cannot study their desired subjects at public universities. The irony lies in the fact that the government, under the guise of an Islamic regime, undermines the very principles of Islam. The first verse revealed in the Holy Qur’an emphasizes the importance of reading and acquiring knowledge, underscoring the religion’s commitment to education for both men and women. Yet, the Taliban’s actions contradict these principles. They deny women their right to education and usurp the people’s

choice in selecting their leader.

As an advocate for women’s and human rights, I cannot help but be astonished at the global silence surrounding the plight of Afghan women. The right to education, a cornerstone of empowerment, has been forcibly taken away from the women of Afghanistan. The question echoes loudly: Why does the world remain silent, seemingly oblivious to the plight of these women who have been forgotten in the shadows of oppression and despair?

Moreover, the oppressors are acutely aware that an educated woman empowers not just herself but her entire family. The ripple effect of education extends beyond the individual to the family and, ultimately, to society. An educated society poses a threat to those who seek to keep people in the dark. This is because an enlightened population questions policies and plans that may not align with their best interests. The oppressors’ fear of an educated society is evident in their ruthless denial of education to women. They aim to keep the populace blind to their ulterior motives.

Although the government denies girls the right to education, recent reports indicate a troubling escalation in their actions. Nowadays, the oppressors are not only preventing girls from going to school but also capturing girls and women from the city, further deepening the crisis.

The silence must be shattered, and the world must be reminded that every voice silenced is a disservice to humanity and the principles we hold dear. The global community must rise against this injustice, recognizing that the empowerment of women through education is not only a fundamental right but a powerful force for positive societal change. The echoes of silence in Afghanistan must be replaced with a resounding call for justice, equality, and the restoration of the right to education for all.

Social Media A PERFORMANCE HOBBY MAKES YOUR A

Contributor Eleanor Coughlan delves into the commodification of our interests and hobbies in a TikTok run world. Do Stanley cups and elaborate running vests really make us run faster?

After formal education ends, all further learning becomes a choice. Hobbies can be outlets for this kind of learning where you have the freedom to explore whatever you want. In our attention economy, they are more and more important as outlets for fun away from the algorithm. Having a hobby makes you more interesting, gives you more depth as a person, and significantly decreases your chances of developing TikTok ‘brain rot.’

However, around New Years, as usual, there was an increase in posts on fitness, running and starting the gym. This is to be expected since social media is trying to market something to you at all times. Yet it particularly bothered me because of the sheer amount of items these influencers were pushing on their audiences. You can’t start running now if you don’t have Hokas, or a running vest. If you want to try pilates you need these yoga pants and this ‘ballet-coquette-girlhood-core’ scrunchie to compliment the whole look. What are you even doing in the gym if you don’t have the BBL jacket? It is depressing to see hobbies becoming mass aesthetics that everyone can only partake in if they just spend enough money. An aesthetic being attached to a hobby isn’t uncommon but achieving that aesthetic shouldn’t be the primary reason people invest money in obscure gadgets and clothes. Why does every influencer, particularly on TikTok, now have a million Amazon or Shein links for products you supposedly need? This kind of marketing is sneaky because it insinuates that you can’t do these hobbies properly without all the accessories

and extras. It makes trying a new hobby yet another consumerist trap.

TikTok and other social media have cheapened the value of a hobby. Its purpose should be to relax or entertain you, but now it has to be ‘Instagrammable’ too. I strongly believe dressing the part can help you feel more confident. For example - when you’re going to the gym for the first time. However, who needs a running vest for their first ever jog around the Lough? Before 2021, were they not reserved for experienced marathon runners? It seems like social media is pushing people to develop hobbies in the reverse order. They start out with all the gadgets and no actual experience, but what happens to your brand new Garmin watch if you give up running before January is even finished? Do you really need that massage gun, or a Lululemon water bottle for your very first pilates class?

This consumerist spin on regular hobbies also creates a barrier for those without wealth, as now you can’t do things if you don’t have the money to buy all the equipment. Is a hobby even a hobby anymore if it becomes another performance in your life? Not even when you’re trying to workout or take care of your body can you escape the drumbeat of consumerism and overconsumption.

I would just like social media to stop convincing people they need to spend vast amounts of money to enjoy a hobby or to simply exercise. It is particularly bad in the fitness industry which, like the beauty industry, targets women heavily, prompting the ultimate question - have we begun to perform the “aesthetic” of hobbies instead of enjoying them?

FROM ERADICATION TO REVITALISATION: EDUCATION AND REGIONAL LANGUAGES IN FRANCE

Contributor Arnaud Hug explains how regional languages in France have suffered a ‘linguicide’ through government policy and stigma. Now preservation methods are being made, but will they be enough?

Compulsory Irish teaching at school is the means through which most of you were introduced to this endangered language. I was even surprised to learn that an Irish proficiency certificate is required to go to college. The situation is very different in France. For example, a handful of students were sanctioned a couple of years ago for writing their maths exam in Breton, a Celtic language from Western France. This example is symptomatic of the wary French attitude towards regional languages and so-called patois - in other words, local dialects.

A short Tour de France is essential in order to get a better picture the linguistic landscape. French is the only official language according to the Constitution of France but many others are spoken or used to be spoken on a regional scale. The most important indigenous languages in metropolitan France are Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Flemish, Franco-Provençal, and Occitan. Some of them have little to do with French from a linguistic point of view as they belong to other groups of languages. Overseas territories, remnants of the French colonial empire, also have their own native languages: creoles in Guadeloupe or Martinique (located in the West Indies), and Kanak languages in New Caledonia (situated off the Australian coast).

But how has French education interfered with regional languages? This mainly dates back to the 1880s - the time of the Third French Republic. Republicans then sought to rally popular opinion after the defeat against Prussia (modern-day Germany) in 1871. Creating a French national identity from scratch and preparing the next generation was a must to take revenge on Germany. School was the spearhead of this nationalist agenda: Jules Ferry, Minister of Public Education, made primary education free, secular, and compulsory. There was also a concentrated effort to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater: the Jules Ferry laws made education more accessible for children from underprivileged backgrounds.

However, it must also be noted that Ferry also left the door open for linguistic discrimination and child abuse. In Occitan, we use the word vergonha (“shame”) to refer to the language discriminatory

policy that made the act of speaking one’s mother tongue shameful. Languages other than French were thus strictly banned from school in order to complete the linguistic homogenisation policy. Children making the mistake of speaking in their native languages were stigmatised by schoolmasters; they had to wear a horseshoe or a slate with humiliating phrases around their necks and were also victims of corporal punishments. The expansion of French language through schools resulted in a virtual linguicide, so much so that after a couple of generations most children were exclusively native French speakers.

Things have begun to change since the 1950s when a law authorised the teaching of regional languages in secondary education. Bilingual teaching is now possible by means of specific private schools: their aim is to revitalise these endangered languages in an imitation of Irish Gaelscoileanna. However, immersive teaching, an educational method which promotes a regional language as the main language, was censored by the French equivalent of the Supreme Court in 2021. Immersive teaching was indeed deemed to be in conflict with the Constitution which - as a reminder - tolerates French as the only official language of the Republic.

As you may be aware, regional languages and identities are still sensitive issues in France and are often mistakenly associated with separatism. Education has thus been in the middle of a debate over the legal status of regional languages for almost 150 years. Both sides of the French political spectrum usually point an accusing finger at regionalist movements which are said to threaten national unity. And yet, France has a rich linguistic heritage that must be preserved and taught, especially as an indigenous language dies every two weeks in the world for lack of transmission…

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