The Official Student Newspaper of UAS

Letter from the Editor / Whalesong Staff -- Mindfulness and Meditation -- One Campus One Book / Mixed -- Notes from the Symposium -- Afternoon with Hieu / Tidal Echoes -- Hunting In Wartime / UAS In Brief -- Snapshots from the Annual Traditional Games -- A Time to Remember: Hacksaw Ridge -- Budget Cuts / Study Abroad -- RBF and the Real Bee-otches (Satire) -- Calendar and Comics

The différance engine: videogames as deconstructive spacetime

The purpose here is to intervene within some dominant strands of videogame scholarship and propose a more problematic relation to our object. The two dominant tendencies taken-up here represent what has come to be self-styled as a media studies 2.0 model, over and against a supposedly previously dominant (and retroactivated as outmoded) 1.0. Proposed in opposition to these somewhat sweeping positions will be a deconstructive model which, while disagreeing with these theoretical ‘algorithms’, would not believe itself to be leading a charge toward any notionally more thoroughgoingly circumnavigating 3.0 account. Specifically, while the 2.0 account proposes a “new” active first-person Performative framework versus an “old” third-person indicative Constative, we would recommend a reworked iterative-Performative as propounded in the works of Derrida and Butler

Displacing and Disrupting: A Dialogue on Hmong Studies and Asian American Studies

This article summarizes a roundtable discussion of scholars that took place at the Association for Asian American Studies Conference in San Francisco, 2014. Hailing from various academic disciplines, the participants explored the relationship between the emerging field of Hmong/Hmong American Studies and Asian American Studies. Questions of interest included: In what ways has Asian American Studies informed Hmong/Hmong American Studies, or failed to do so? In what ways does Hmong/Hmong American Studies enrich/challenge Asian American Studies? What are the tensions between these two fields and other related fields? How do/should the new programs in Hmong/Hmong American Studies relate to the existing Asian American Studies programs regarding curriculum, activism and/or resource allocation

More talk than walk: Indonesia as a foreign policy actor

Indonesia is unlikely to become a significantly influential international actor in the medium term, despite its size, strategic location and economic potential. Key findings: Indonesia’s influence in international affairs is growing, but it will not become a major power in the short to medium term. Facing public pressure to exert influence globally, Indonesia will pursue a far-reaching foreign policy agenda, but without the resources to flex its muscles in support of its ideas. Countries can engage now on regional and global issues that are important to Indonesia and that help it be seen as a global player, thereby building trust and relationships that are a long term investment in Indonesia’s future potential

Networks in the shadow of markets and hierarchies : calling the shots in the visual effects industry

The nature and organisation of creative industries and creative work has increasingly been at the centre of academic and policy debates in recent years. The differentiation of this field, economically and spatially, has been tied to more general arguments about the trend towards new trust-based, network forms of organization and economic coordination. In the first part of this paper, we set out, unpack and then critique the conceptual and empirical foundations of such claims. In the main section of the paper, we draw on research into a particular creative sector of the economy - the visual effects component of the film industry - a relatively new though increasingly important global production network. By focusing both on firms and their workers, and drawing on concepts derived from global value chain, labour process and institutional analysis, we aim to offer a more realistic and grounded analysis of creative work within creative industries. The analysis begins with an attempt to explain the power dynamics and patterns of competition and collaboration in inter-firm relations within the Hollywood studio-dominated value chain, before moving to a detailed examination of how the organisation of work and reemployment relations are central to the capturing of value. On the basis of that evidence, we conclude that trust-based networks and collaborative communities play some part in accessing and acquiring leverage in the value chain, but do not explain the core mechanisms of resource allocation, coordination and work organisation

Global Health in Lights: Hollywood's Master Storytellers & Stars Highlight Global Health in Entertainment

Sandra de Castro Buffington, director of the Norman Lear Center's Hollywood, Health & Society program, moderated this discussion which brought top TV producers, writers and performers together with key Washington policymakers to focus on how global health is portrayed in entertainment media

Not all creatives are created equal

Revelations of sexual harassment, sexism and unequal pay in film and broadcasting have called ‘time’s up’ on the myths of egalitarianism that circulate about the creative sector, argues Rosalind Gill

The Official Student Newspaper of UAS

Letter from the Editor / Whalesong Staff -- Strategic Pathways / Fin. Aid. Dir. / ALI Retreat -- From the Vault: Humans versus Zombies -- Study Away -- Student Gov. Update / Strategic Pathways Cont. -- UAS Mourns Reed McWilliams -- Health Corner / My Friend Reed -- A Time to Remember / ALI Retreat Cont. -- The Green Dot Initiative / The Hunting Grounds -- Campus Safety -- Calendar and Comics