Category: Women
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August 14, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
After Job loses everything (including his health), but before his friends come to “comfort” him, Job’s wife offers a rare sentence of advice. No other female speaks in the Book of Job so it caught my eye. She suggests that Job should end his misery. By the end of chapter 2, Job is in a truly pitiful state.
July 10, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Xiaolu Guo’s novel Call Me Ishmaelle reimagines Moby Dick. The adventure begins when a fifteen year old girl, Ishmaelle, becomes an orphan. Born and raised in the poor village of Saxonham, a fictional coastal village in the UK, she tries to work as a ropemaker for a time but is quickly drawn to a life at sea.
» Read more about: BOOK REVIEW: Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo »
January 30, 2026
Thanks to Sabahat Ali Wani, a 2025 Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
Hairpins to earrings, scarves to sleeves—as a visual artist, I search for, collect, and use Kashmiri women’s clothes and accessories in my practice, primarily intending to shed light and document our lives, stories, and memories of resistance. That is at the core of my art: resistance, a medium to represent and record Kashmiri women’s narratives.
» Read more about: From Kashmir—Hairpins and Earrings, Scarves and Sleeves »
October 24, 2025
Thanks to Sabahat Ali Wani, a 2025 Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
In 1971, Linda Nochlin asked, “Why have there been no great women artists?” Triggering a series of conversations, debates, and gendered concerns around art history, this question still holds classical relevance, but also reveals Eurocentric ideals and practices of celebrated feminist art historical interventions, where non-Western women artists and their artworks are “doubly marginalised,” in fact,
» Read more about: Tracing the Ebbs and Flows of Feminism and Art History Now »
October 10, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s review.
While I’ve always loved Jane Austen’s characters, it was only after becoming an adult that I understood Austen’s complex social commentaries. I’ve read most of her works multiple times. For some reason, however, I never picked up Persuasion. So, in honor of Austen’s 250th birthday this year, I read that final novel. As usual, I identify with the strong female voice.
April 4, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
As an entry point into the great idea of “Family,” Adler quotes Rousseau who claims that family is “the most ancient of all societies and the only one that is natural.” Adler then explains that by natural he means something to the effect of either “instinctive” or “necessary.” Rousseau continues that children stay with parents only as long as is necessary.
March 21, 2025
Thanks to Joy Reeves, a 2025 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s blog.
“Fortune befriends the bold,” Virgil first wrote in Aeneid. But in a world where boldness, the self-serving counterpart of courage, is so quick to estrange and sour relationships—is fortune’s friendship enough? Todd Field’s 2022 film Tár masterfully addresses this question in a unique, provocative portrait of a lonely musical genius.
March 14, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
“You should see me in a crown/ Your silence is my favorite sound.” – Billie Eilish
In Act II, Scene 3 of the First Part of Shakespeare’s Henry VI, the French Countess of Auvergne attempts to trick Talbot, the leader of the English army. She invites the soldier to her castle in order to trap him.
February 28, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
I presented in the War and Culture group for this year’s Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference. War and Culture is well outside my norm, but a comment during one of last year’s roundtable discussions stuck with me. Last year, the War and Culture group was abnormally small, which seemed odd given the number of ongoing worldwide conflicts.
February 7, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last year at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association conference what started out as a discussion on adventure novels turned into a discussion of why popular culture circles have stopped writing about war. This conference alone used to hold numerous War and Culture panels. These have dwindled in recent years. I find this astonishing considering that there are at least a dozen major conflicts in the world right now.