Overcoming Typhoon Hagibis through a Festival? Foreign Correspondent in Japan, Hannah Daniels, decodes Japanese resilience by looking at the Bakeneko Festival – held in the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis. Typhoon Hagibis, meaning “speed” in the Philippine language Tagalog, barrelled towards Tokyo on the evening of Saturday October 12th, stirring winds of up to 180km per […]
Naruhito’s Enthronement and the Question of Imperial Divinity
Naruhito’s Enthronement and the Question of Imperial Divinity Will Goddard takes a deeper look at Naruhito’s recent enthronement and its potentially troublesome correlations with imperial divinity. It was this very divinity that the Allies sought to dismantle after the Second World War. After Japan’s unconditional surrender in August of 1945, following the atomic bombings of […]
Blackface in the Name of Tradition: Calling into Question the Notion of Dutch Tolerance
Blackface in the Name of Tradition: Calling into Question the Notion of Dutch Tolerance Foreign Correspondent in the Netherlands, Iona Brunker, discusses the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas, its controversial ties with blackface and how it is being adapted today. However, when talking to my new flat mates a mere 48 hours into my stay here […]
Why Communities Can Protest Climate Change… but Social Media Can’t
Why Communities Can Protest Climate Change… but Social Media Can’t Becca Wells, Foreign Correspondent in Australia, analyses Climate Change Protests in Melbourne and argues community, not social media, can make a difference. People from every corner of the city gathered outside Melbourne’s Parliament building. Indigenous landowners, Quakers, environmentalist groups, school trips, the elderly, even dogs […]
Why is Trump Tweeting More Now than During his Election Campaign?
Why is Trump Tweeting More Now than During his Election Campaign? Foreign Correspondent in Brussels, Georgia Shepherd, takes an outside look into Trump’s Presidency and his non-stop media strategy. Of course, by tweeting, talking and being more visible, his views gain greater currency. It seems that, as Trump gets more comfortable in the Oval Office, […]
Convenience and Criminal Justice in Japan
Foreign Correspondent in Japan, Will Goddard, explores the Japanese Criminal Justice system. He poses that the close relationship between convenience and justice could have damaging consequences.
A Spotlight on Spanish Teenagers’ Perspectives: Why Spain has not Embraced Solar Power yet…
Tom Broadbent, Foreign Correspondent in Spain, decided to challenge his students to engage with macro politics. He introduces an article by one of his students, María Garcia Gálvez, discussing why Spain has not yet made the most of solar power.
How to Deal with Loneliness on your Year Abroad
Foreign Correspondent in Germany, Emma Wallace, explores in detail how you can deal with loneliness on your year abroad and gives examples of her and her friends’ strategies to overcome these “study abroad blues”.
How you can dive into language: the experiences of an English student in Germany
Back in October, I attended my first class on Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. It was a first for many reasons: mainly due to how the lesson was conducted – much to my surprise, in both English and German. I knew that German would be spoken to some extent, I am in Munich after all, but […]
Japan’s Crown Princess set to take a new role as the Reiwa era begins
A new era is about to dawn in Japan. Suffering from ill health, the elderly Emperor Akihito will abdicate the Chrysanthemum Throne in favour of his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, on the thirtieth of April this year. His reign, alongside Crown Princess Masako, will mark the beginning of the ‘Reiwa’ era, as announced on the […]