Exhibiting Arab modern art in Iran is about more than just diplomacy
A new modern art exhibition in Tehran is being promoted as a bracing act of cultural diplomacy. But we should look a little deeper.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Cultural history
Displaying 1 - 20 of 33 articles
How the archaeological review behind the Dakota Access Pipeline went wrong
What sacred sites have been damaged by The North Dakota Access Pipeline? We can't really know for certain – and our legal system is partly to blame.
Meet 3-million-year-old Lucy – she’ll tell you a lot about modern African heritage
When it comes to valuable African fossils, much is at stake. They often unearth disputed ways of debating archaeology as a science of ‘discovery’.
The ongoing taboo of menstruation in Australia
Ask any young woman whether she feels embarrassed by her periods and she’ll likely deny it. Her grandmother might have hidden all evidence of "the curse" but not today’s liberated women. Right?
This woman’s work: the onscreen and offscreen war service of Claire Adams Mackinnon
This Remembrance Day, spend some time with Claire Adams Mackinnon – the silent Hollywood movie star who stole the heart of Melbourne bachelor and lived the last 40 years of her life in Victoria.
Albert Pierrepoint: a ‘haunted hangman’ and the death penalty today
50 years after the UK first experimented with removing the death penalty for murder, one name has become our bridge to the hangman's noose.
The Confederate battleflag comes in waves, with a history that is still unfurling
President Obama's recent condemnation of the Confederate battleflag mirrors the current and rapidly-changing public mood on this artefact. But attitudes to the flag have deeper roots.
What’s in a word? The challenges of ‘transgender’
Transgender is a relatively new word. So when an academic seeks to create a transgender historical archive, complications abound.
Do you see what I’m wearing? How clothes reveal who we are
It's easy to dismiss fashion as trivial but the clothes we wear have stories to tell. Fashion is part of everyday experience and our memories are often stitched into the seams of our favourite dresses.
Let’s unstick our postage stamps from Howard’s Australia
For most of us stamps have become infrequent objects of daily life but they continue to be produced, and collected by devotees – so what do they say about us as a nation?
Ancient cities are being bulldozed by Islamic State – here’s what the world is losing
It was in Mesopotamia that the world's first cities emerged, along with the invention of writing and the codification of laws.
Darling, I love you … from the bottom of my brain
In William Shakespeare’s comedy Merchant of Venice, the play’s heroine Portia sings: Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart or in the head. If you look at Valentine’s Day cards, it’s clear fancy…
Selma blurs line between past and present
Hollywood films that depict American history deeply influence our sense of national identity. Films that portray Civil Rights and Black Freedom history are particularly important. Beyond entertaining moviegoers…
Out of your noggin? Festive spices and their intoxicating history
Traditional Christmas and winter food and drinks such as mulled wine, eggnog, ginger bread and fruitcakes often call for more than a dash of what Jamie Oliver calls “festive spices” – cloves, cinnamon…
Adding pimento: a flavour of Caribbean migration to Australia
Growing up with a Jamaican grandmother in 1970s small-town Australia was unusual. There weren’t any other Caribbean (or West Indian) people living nearby and a Caribbean community did not exist in Newcastle…
Bites, brawls and severed heads: football’s history of violence
Another game, another bite. That’s the allegation against Uruguayan Luis Suárez, anyway, who has been accused of sinking his teeth into an opposition player. For the third time. But a mid-game nibble on…
O'Farrell resignation: red wine, political blood and cultural memory
Political scandals, the perennial product of the grinding gears of greed and governance, proliferate in the age of digital media, the 24-hours news cycle and anti-corruption bodies with wide powers. Constant…
German schools are building bridges across Europe as they remember World War I
German approaches to the history lessons of World War I are characterised by a sense of distance and an anti-war attitude. But probably the most striking feature of the way Germany teaches its children…
Brand history shows marketing is the second oldest profession
Oxfam has announced the latest set of results from its Behind the Brands project to influence ten leading food and beverage companies to reform their supply chains. The charity’s efforts are only the most…
While Elgin Marbles debate rages, there is still a market for looted antiquities
Several members of the cast of the film The Monuments Men made headlines for expressing the view that the British Museum should return the Elgin Marbles to Athens after their “very nice stay” of 200 years…
Top contributors
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Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
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Alice Gorman is a Friend of The Conversation.
Senior Lecturer in archaeology and space studies, Flinders University
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Research fellow, University of Melbourne
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Cultural Researcher, University of Notre Dame Australia
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Dennis Altman is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professorial Fellow in Human Security, La Trobe University
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Director of the Centre for Organisational and Social Informatics, Monash University
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Senior Lecturer in American Politics and Foreign Policy, Academic Director of the US Studies Centre, University of Sydney
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Editor, Overland literary journal, Victoria University
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Visiting Scientist of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University
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Adjunct Professor, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor, Challis Chair of English, University of Sydney
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Digital Archivist
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Visitor, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University
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Senior Lecturer, Literary and Gender Studies, Victoria University
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Lecturer, Twentieth Century History, University of Liverpool
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