This year Ludwig van Beethoven turns 250. Though some of his creations have been overexposed, they are indisputably brilliant. And there are still others waiting to be discovered by music lovers.
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Indigenous kinship networks link each plant to the next and connect us to Country. Honouring this way of being and engaging in fair collaboration might give power to our heartbreak.
Instagram bushfire images cut through our news fatigue. This developing brand of photojournalism brings authenticity and a different sense of proximity.
Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and Hollywood cinema has kept pace. In a time of global warming, these ‘eco-disaster’ films are fraught with meaning.
Living in a bushfire-prone area means every decision - from plants to parking spots to holidays - is shaped by fire risk. We live and die by the advice we are given, and the advice we ignore.
Yothu Yindi’s music introduced the world to the Yolŋu clan traditions of northeast Arnhem Land. But few listeners know these songs echo long histories of engagement with Southeast Asian visitors.
Henry James called her a ‘great, horse-faced bluestocking’. On the 200th anniversary of her birth, we celebrate George Eliot, a literary trailblazer with an endless appetite for ideas, living in a patriarchal time.
Moulding eyebrows to make a statement is nothing new. A journey through history, across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, shows some of the highs and lows of brow fashion.
There is no weapon more visceral than the bayonet. It encourages an intimate form of killing, and during WW1, Australia troops plunged, parried and stabbed with great vigour.
Historical perspective can offer much in this time of ecological crisis,. Many historians are reinventing their traditional scales of space and time to tell different kinds of stories that recognise the unruly power of nature.
The road to three writers’ festivals in three weeks prompts reflection on authors liberated by road trips - and those sharing the journey now.
Away from the state capitals, small museums are out of step with big city curators - presenting tourists with stories that give a blinkered view of local history.
The Flinders Ranges in South Australia is Adnyamathanha Country. A country of 600 million-year-old fossils and 45,000-year-old living culture.
Simone Biles enters the 2019 World Gymnastics Championships already with the most all-around gold medals ever. The greatest of all time, she has changed the sport forever.
Don’t blame the global financial crisis. The Australian art market has performed poorly over the last decade - but there is plenty of growth potential.
A 40-year friendship ends badly and publicly, leading to a forensic examination of what it means to have and be a friend.
There is so much more to Iran than politics. Its traditional music carries messages of beauty, joy, sorrow and love to the world.
There are memorial stones scattered along songlines throughout the Australian landscape, victims and transgressors transformed into rock following epic struggles to stand as cautionary tales.
A giant ocean fish swims into the heart of industrial Port Kembla looking for food. What if we take its presence, a few km from an ancient, living midden, as a symbol of both new and old ways to learn in the age of the Anthropocene?
For decades, a book wrongly identified as ‘The Holy Koran’ was kept at a mosque in Broken Hill. Who was the unnamed traveller who brought Bengali stories of the prophets to the Australian desert?
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in Media, University of Notre Dame Australia
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Honorary Professor, The University of Queensland
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Associate Professor, Griffith University
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Associate Professor in Literary Studies, Monash University
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Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
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Lecturer, Deakin University
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Professor Emeritus of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith University
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Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor (adjunct) in Creative Writing, Flinders University
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Fashion historian, Edith Cowan University
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Professor of English, Flinders University
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Associate Professor Visual Communication, University of Technology Sydney
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Sessional academic, Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature, Macquarie University
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Joanna Mendelssohn is a Friend of The Conversation.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne
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Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University
