Aesthetic Of The Macabre

Written by Aya Dead bodies are a favourite topic of conversation across the humanities. It seems that there’s just something fascinating about the dark, decaying and macabre. Every culture has practices and beliefs that it lends to death; their own funeral rites they grant to those who pass. One of my favourite journal articles (The […]
Graveyard Etiquette

Ah, Tik Tok, the place where all micro trends go to live and die. Home of dancing, viral song, and as it appears, gravestone cleaning. While this may seem like a thoughtful gesture for the deceased, which it can be, if done respectfully such as what @manicpixiemom does, a lot of time it ends up […]
In Defense of Performative Males

Okay please, let me explain myself. I fear this is actually an unproductive trend, I fear that calling out ‘performative males’ with their tote bags and their moustaches is actually just bullying men for having a personality. I don’t know about you, but I certainly prefer to surround myself with people who actually have personalities […]
Nexus Book Club: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde remains one of the most unsettling Victorian novellas. Published in 1886, it reflects contemporary anxieties about respectability, urban life, and the duality of man, while also anticipating modern debates on the unconscious, addiction, and hidden desires. Though brief in length, the text represents Stevenson’s […]
The Light in the Dark

Cue Beetoven, symphony No. 5. Duuh duh duh duuhhh Duh duh duh duuuuhhhhhhhh… That’s the song I get when I’m standing in a gothic cathedral, staring up at the vaulted ceilings, stained glass windows shifting the light into colours not previously seen by mankind, the intricate details of every wall flooded in cool light. My […]
Wuthering Heights

I’m sure we’ve all watched the erotic “Wuthering Heights” trailer by Emerald Fennell. While some may have been captivated by the bearded Jacob Elordi, Charli XCX, and overall sexual manner to it, this is supposedly a “Wuthering Heights” adaptation, which this trailer doesn’t really cover. The story of “Wuthering Heights” is a deeply complex one […]
Nexus Knows

Anonymous: How to survive a 9 am lecture? Nexus: The first step is to determine whether your routine needs to/ can change. Do you need to change your sleep schedule and are you capable of doing so? If so, this is a good place to start to get more energy to survive the morning. Caffeine […]
Confessions of a Theatre Kid: Where are the Theatre Kids at Waikato?

HELLOOO??!! WHY IS THERE NO THEATRE CLUB AT THIS UNIVERSITY? I feel like I’m shouting into the void. Only answered by the strong but mighty voices of my beloved Theatre Studies class. It’s one of the greatest blind spots for student engagement here at Waikato. While other unis produce musicals and debut students original work, […]
Commodifying Pop Culture (In The Form of Tattoo)

There’s something to be said about loving an idea so much that you feel the need to condemn it to permanence. We live in an age that sometimes confuses consumerism with love which means that we need to digest or embody something for our claim over it to feel valid. There’s this strange trend these […]
The Reality for Reality TV: Ink Master *GONG WRONG* (Not Clickbait)

The Season 15 finale of Ink Master became a trigger-point for conversations about art, bias, and representation in traditionally masculine spaces. At its centre was Freddie, a queer finalist on the show, whose interpretation of the challenge theme “female” subverted the expected feminine form into something that sparked debate at the judge’s panel and across […]