Siberian Ginseng

New blog!

2015-08-19T14:00:00.000+08:00

Hello, thank you for visiting Siberian Ginseng! I kept this blog from 2010 to 2013 and it covers most of my PhD writing and some of what came afterwards. Feel free to browse about.

These days I blog over at definitive knots about writing, performing and my on-again-off-again relationship with academia. I am also on twitter and instagram.

Exploring interests

2013-10-15T21:18:00.001+08:00

I'm doing an Alternative Dispute Resolution course at UWA at the moment - it's run through the Law Faculty by Jill Howieson and David Rogers and goes for ten weeks, with an optional accreditation examination at the end of it. We're over halfway through now, so I thought I should look back on the experience so far.

I'm doing the course because I'm the Equity & Diversity Adviser for the Education faculty, so having some dispute resolution skills will/do come in handy. At the same time, though, mediation is a process I've been interested in for a while anyway, so I'm pleased I have the opportunity to take the course from a broader perspective as well.

Having said that, I was a little bit concerned about the course in advance - ten weekly three-hour sessions after a full day at work? With potentially very procedural and legalistic content? You'd have to be mad!

Fortunately the course has been a lot more exciting - we've really focused on negotiation, interest exploration and the underlying motivations and feelings that drive people to say and do particular things. Talking about feelings all evening is something I rather enjoy, and I end up feeling peculiarly energised from the session.

There are roughly thirty of us on the course: some are UWA staff and some are external from law firms or government departments. We do a lot of role-playing, with everyone getting a chance at some point to be a mediator in a dispute between two aggrieved parties. It can be challenging to phrase things appropriately, to avoid negative language ("well it looks like you've come to a stalemate here") and to focus on the process and getting the parties to work through to an outcome (not a "solution"!) of their own doing. There are also some similarities with teaching that I appreciate - you don't want to give away the solutions, you want to make silences work for you and so on.

I'm still getting my head around the different stages of the mediation process and how to progress from one to another, but I'm enjoying the experience and quietly committing myself to take the examination at the end of the course.

Reinvented traditions: a "national" costume once removed

2013-06-21T21:13:00.001+08:00

When I graduated my mother wanted to give me something suitably traditional, like Kalevala Koru jewellery, as a present. I thought about it for a little while and decided on Hollola fabric.

Film for Theatre: Henry V and Jesus Christ Superstar

2013-06-02T22:11:00.001+08:00

Over the weekend I attended two performances: a screening of Shakespeare's Globe's Henry V at Cinema Paradiso and Jesus Christ Superstar at Perth Arena.

The Body Image Playlist

2013-05-14T19:56:00.002+08:00

No commentary from me this time, enjoy (?) these poached thoughts on a theme.

"Pretty", Katie Makkai

"Wrinkled Ladies", Anita Renfroe

"TV advertising", Mitchell & Webb

Are you offended?

2013-04-18T22:05:00.000+08:00

I've had plenty of occasion to think about 'offence', largely because I have been on the internet once or twice. The most recent event to bring me back to the concept is the furore around this year's PROSH magazine. Drunk naked West Australian uni students hit the streets to sell racist hate-speech has got to be in the top 10 of headlines your average Vice-Chancellor would not want to have to deal with.

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Authenticity: (Un)Real Travel

2013-01-23T22:46:00.000+08:00

I'm planning the next trip back to ye olde motherland, and am thinking about all things travel-related. I find it hard to strike a balance between trying to visit as many countries as possible and spending longer stretches somewhere to "really get to know the place". A ridiculous sentiment, but one I cling to.

War and Peace - Russian Resurrection Film Festival

2012-09-23T23:50:00.001+08:00

I have just come home from seeing the 1960s Mosfilm War and Peace, all seven or so hours of it, at Cinema Paradiso as part of the Russian Resurrection film festival. I went to see Two Days on Thursday and am planning on Siberia Mon Amour tomorrow, and was going to do a joint blog post of my foray into Russian cinema, but it would be impossible not to dedicate a post to the centrepiece of the festival. The film was made in several parts between 1961 and 1967 partly as a response to King Vidor's 1956 War and Peace. It is an exquisite spectacle, the most expensive Soviet film ever produced (hardly surprising, seeing as it is, in effect, four films).

Vivat academia! Vivant professores!

2012-09-12T23:51:00.000+08:00

So, I graduated yesterday.

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Made On The Left

2012-07-29T20:39:00.002+08:00

I love markets. I love craft. It should only follow (rabbits and hats, people!) that I love craft markets.

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S-M-R-T! Smart! or "End of an era"

2012-07-14T21:13:00.001+08:00

I have made a crucial decision today and ordered a smartphone. I'm not entirely happy about the development.

Top of the World

2012-07-11T21:55:00.000+08:00

So, I went on holiday. I had an unforgettable weekend in Kathmandu: it was noisy and messy and at times very confronting, but my local friend was an excellent guide and was really able to show how to appreciate Nepal. Here's a taste, but you should go, go, go.

Me 'n' Joan

2012-06-03T20:02:00.000+08:00

It's been a while, hasn't it?

In fairness I have very little to say, but a brief update would probably be a good idea.

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Precious, Sherlock and the Darcys

2012-02-19T22:18:00.001+08:00

It occurred to me that recently I have been reading almost exclusively detective fiction. It's not a genre I've dabbled in before, so I'm pleased I managed not to crack open any duds. It's been fun: my new acquaintances have been quick reads with interesting main characters and more humour than I was expecting.

[there will be spoilers]

The White Divers of Broome + bonus language rant

2012-02-10T11:27:00.001+08:00

I had the chance to go see Black Swan State Theatre Company's The White Divers of Broome last night at the brand-spanking new Heath Ledger Theatre (or 'the Ledger', if you're in the know, or maybe even 'the Ledge'). I went to Broome almost exactly a year ago and became interested in the excesses and abuses of the pearling industry, so I couldn't possibly miss this piece.
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Le Haavisto

2012-01-21T03:30:00.002+08:00

Miksi Pekka?

Siksi Pekka.

Aanesta sunnuntaina Pekka Haavistoa, numero 2.

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Acknowledgements

2012-01-09T17:21:00.001+08:00

A fellow thesis-wrangler is preparing to submit his thesis tomorrow, so we've been comparing notes on submission processes, forms, acknowledgements etc. It occurred to me that while I had intended to post my acknowledgements here once I submitted, I never got around to it. So here we go, a little bit late in the piece:

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Ready, Set... Read!

2011-11-21T13:53:00.001+08:00

Seeing as I was able to stick to my new year's resolution ("I will finish my thesis in 2011!") and so far I'm on track with NaNoWriMo I've been thinking of my next set of goals. One fairly significant one I've decided on is this:

I will read the shortlisted novels for the Man Booker, Miles Franklin and Finlandia awards.

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The PhD Movie

2011-10-15T17:14:00.002+08:00

The PhD Movie came to Perth this week and was shown in joint UWA/Curtin screenings on Thursday, with proceeds going towards supporting Indigenous literacy programs. It's always a bit odd watching films in a lecture theatre - more like watching a really big TV with a bunch of people you don't know - but it was an appropriate setting for the film.

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Well Red - A Submission in Pictures

2011-10-10T18:33:00.001+08:00

A Village

2011-10-08T23:33:00.001+08:00

It was my son's birthday party today, and it was glorious seeing six little toddlers playing together and only occasionally toppling over each other. Now, you might think it would be a bit crazy having that many toddlers roaming around, but you would be forgetting that they each brought on average two adults with them.

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Thesis-gazing

2011-09-21T15:00:00.001+08:00

I'm on the home stretch of getting the thesis finished, and every now and then I'm struck by a very clear memory of writing a specific part of it, or of doing some of the research.

This book, for example, will always remind me of the oddest Australia Day I've experienced so far: it was in 2008, and I was on my first research trip to Finland. I read the book in a cafe at the Messila ski slopes near my parents' home, drinking cup after cup of hot chocolate while my husband snowboarded outside. There I was, all comfortably bunkered in to reading about shame and desire, when the radio started playing Land Down Under. It was all so gloriously, incongruously familiar it's stayed with me. I'm sure that in some bizarre way that moment pretty much encapsulated my whole research experience.

I've also been flicking through my notebooks looking at mindmapped plans of my chapters. I always marvel at the fact that when all those coloured marker pens touched paper significant bits of the thesis were only starting to come together. The progression from notes to actual finished thesis has been long and even painful, but somehow those notes make the early days feel much closer and the progress much more precarious.

(Note to self: backup files)

When I first started my thesis I kept a diary about my progress with the plan to eventually turn it into some kind of book about writing a PhD - "if I could do it, so can you!". But then I got embarrassed at how slowly everything was going and how little I felt I was achieving I gave up on that project. As nice as it would be to have a record for the future of my possible successes, I'd rather not leave evidence of my potential failures, I reasoned.

I was an idiot.

If it's not too late for you (is there a too late?), do keep notes of your progress: the little breakthroughs, the periods of stagnation and despair. At the pointy end of the process you do want to be able to look back and know how you got to where you are, but the memories don't take form quite as easily long after the fact.

Scaredycat Learns A Lesson

2011-08-18T15:38:00.002+08:00

When I was around fourteen three guest speakers visited my school. They were from SETA, the peak body promoting sexual equality in Finland. The guests were all young adults, and they talked about what it had been like growing up knowing they were different, the difficulties they had faced when they came out to the their family and friends and so on. I remember that two of them were siblings: the woman said she had felt particularly hurt that her brother, next to her on stage that day, had not been very supportive of her at first even though he was gay as well and would have known how vulnerable she felt at the time.

It was a phenomenal talk to listen to. I remember thinking how very, very brave all three had to be to come to a high school to talk about such private and sensitive things. I couldn't imagine that talking freely about your sexuality would have been easy even for grown-ups, let alone in front of a faceless mass of teenagers. I wanted to just say thank you to the speakers and let them know I appreciated their openness.

After the talk they had lunch at school, and I saw them talking to a couple of teachers in the lunch room. I had my opportunity to say something, but I didn't take it. Why? I didn't want anyone to think I could be gay. I didn't say anything to them, I just had my food and left, not entirely aware at that point that my cowardice rather defeated the purpose of the talk in the first place.

To recap: I didn't go talk to a gay person in case I was judged for it. In an environment clearly supportive of different sexualities, after an event specifically designed to make teenagers rethink their prejudices.

Let's take a moment, then, to consider how little support and friendship there might be for gay people growing up in less inclusive environments, such as the ones that people like Bob Katter and Barnaby Joyce like to think they represent.

Katter and Joyce are members of the Australian Parliament, and a couple of days ago they along with other MPs addressed a rally for equal marriage rights to express their opposition to it. Katter thinks that gay marriage "should be ridiculed" and Joyce is somehow under the impression that if marriage rights are granted to homosexual couples they will simultaneously be taken away from his daughters specifically.

Now, this isn't the first time Katter and Joyce have ridden the crazy train, and they're certainly not alone on it. I sincerely hope, though, that we can all, individually and collectively, develop enough backbone to stop perpetuating their particular brand of fear, shame and misinformation (Katter, you could do alot worse than start here).

Join GetUp's campaign for marriage equality. And next time you want to commend someone for being brave don't be a coward about it.

The Academic Bookstore in Helsinki

2011-07-21T03:47:00.003+08:00

Now, you may know that I think books are overrated. I like books, certainly, and am likely to spend a fair bit of time in bookshops, but the same applies to homeware stores and cafes. However, there is one bookstore, the mother of them all, that I could live in (also because it has a cafe). The few occasions I have the chance to visit leave me with a little bit more hope and thrill about the world.

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The NaNoWriMo Challenge

2011-07-08T21:00:00.001+08:00

Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month?