Emma Halahan, Author at The Orbital

11Jun

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

Activism Gets A Makeover

Activism hasn’t always been the prettiest or the most aesthetically pleasing activity. The activist activities of marches and sit ins, often complete with their associated ‘grunge’, were not exactly the most photogenic. And whilst this old style activism is inspiring to those inclined to appreciate activists methods and beliefs – the appeal of activism can often be lost on may due to this less than sanitary image. So how do you go about cleaning up activisms image problem? Artivism is the word on every activist thinkers lips, a timely amalgamation of art and activism as though the two haven’t been deeply intertwined for decades that promises to bring us a hip, gentrified and altogether better looking kind of activism. Artivism can range from graffiti to political resistance posters and de...

Everything you need to know about the UCU strikes: why and how you can support your academics.

20Feb

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

News

Everything you need to know about the UCU strikes: why and how you can support your academics.

If you don’t need to be persuaded, scroll down for an email template that you can send to Paul Layzell and other members of Senior Management to come out in support of your striking academics and potentially end the strikes sooner. What, when and why are the strikes taking place? The Universities and College Union (UCU) have called for four weeks of ‘unprecedented’ strike action over a deal made by the governing body for universities, University UK (UUK) that would see the average lecturer lose roughly £10,000 of their pension a year in a restructuring of the University Superannuations Scheme (USS). Pensions which are usually paid in by academics each month and then matched by the university, would be tied 100% to the stock market. This means that universities would void their respon...

19Feb

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Review: Love Island The Musical

Love Island: The Musical transports us to a sunny island resort in the unlikely venue of Jane Holloway Hall. Incredibly innovative production skills use a projector, a voting app and a star performance by Director Connor Wood as the hot tub, to produce a lot of laughs and a substantial suspension of disbelief. The performances mimics the style of the hit reality TV show that swept the nation last summer, Love Island, which sees couples deserted on an island to find love and win some hefty cash prizes. It is clear that the production team from the beginning have thought long and hard about how to squeeze what they can from an incredibly low budget production. There are pre recorded ‘ad breaks’ that left the audience in hysterics and the infamous Love Island texts show up on the projecto...

12Feb

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

Opinion

Residents Versus Students?

For those that haven’t yet joined Englefield Greenies, the Facebook Group for all residents of Englefield Green, it is the battlefront on which the war between students and residents is being waged. Daily occurrences of noise complaints regarding student houses, upset about lack of parking due to commuting students, and general animosity are rife. But do the Greenies have a point? What once was a traditional Victorian village has been overrun by a good chunk of our 9000 students and according to our 2013-2020 strategy that number is only set to rise. Is their disdain the result of years of poor treatment and a convenient discourse we have spun dismissing them as an intolerant community? Do all Greenies hate students? We spoke to some to get the real story. Time and time again on Engl...

Sexism Storm Surrounds Royal Holloway Principal

23Jan

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

News

Sexism Storm Surrounds Royal Holloway Principal

Royal Holloway Principal, Professor Layzell has claimed the university has a “transparent and fair pay system” despite having the seventh worst gender pay gap in the country at professorial level. Speaking at his last Staff Open Meeting in November, he claimed the problem was instead rooted in the fact there are not enough women going for promotion. In a recording of the meeting obtained by Orbital Magazine, the Principal claimed that “there are certain protected groups where there is a natural tendency to not have a go and put themselves in for promotion - sometimes that’s gender, sometimes it’s the BAME group”. The Principal is facing backlash from his “natural tendency” comments, with one member of staff in the Geography Department telling Orbital that it was “an example of ev...

22Nov

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

Opinion

The Suicide Statistic: It Matters

In 2016, 146 students in England and Wales committed suicide, a 94.6% increase from 75 students in 2007 (Office of National Statistics). The university mental health crisis is real and it is growing. Yet in its wake, universities and colleges seem to be frozen in fear with very few rushing to collect any data about these issues. Royal Holloway is one of them. Whilst mental health difficulties present in many more ways than the few who do die by suicide each year, keeping the statistics of how many students complete suicide is important. It illustrates the number of students in severe crisis and allows students to hold their universities accountable for better mental health service provisions as a result. The RHUL Mental Health Network submitted a Freedom of Information request to Roy...

8Nov

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

Opinion

Cultural Allyship: Make It Count

Cultural appropriation is the adoption of certain elements of a culture without the consent of that community nor a full understanding of why such elements are important. It has continued to make national headlines with scores of celebrities being accused of adopting cultural icons such as dreadlocks and henna without a full appreciation of their significance to communities around the globe. Much of the controversy surrounding cultural appropriation concerns the people who believe their appropriation is just a gesture of appreciation and a recognition of the beauty of such elements. Fundamentally, though, this idea is rooted in an orientalist thought process which reduces items to simply ‘beautiful’ and ‘mysterious’ objects, void of any deep sentimental or spiritual significance. So how...

26Sep

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

Opinion

A Prescription for Stigma

Could taking a pill your doctor has prescribed you turn you into a murderer? This is the awful premise that viewers of BBC’s Panorama were presented with as they tuned in to A Prescription for Murder?, an hour long feature into Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants and their potential link to extreme violence. The episode presided over the case of James Holmes, who walked into a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado and opened fire, killing 12 and injuring 70. Holmes had no previous record of violence but 17 weeks before the killing he began a course of sertraline, an SSRI anti-depressant. Panorama is supported by Professor David Healy, who helped with James’ defence but was never actually asked to provide evidence. Within the story, Healy asks us to consider that if...

Five Apps that are More Productive than Binging Netflix

26Sep

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

Lifestyle

Five Apps that are More Productive than Binging Netflix

Netflix is the procrastination tool of choice for many of us and it’s not hard to see why. A seemingly endless supply of the world's favourite TV shows is an appealing premise, but for those of you wondering how else to kill the boredom in a slightly more productive manner, here are the top picks. 1) Mapswipe Mapswipe is one of those mindless but addictive tasks. Across the world, Medicine Sans Frontiers is looking to digitally map parts of the world which we currently haven’t. You simply help them along their way by telling them whether the tile you’re presented with has any structures, major roads or rivers on it. One day, if the area is struck by a crisis, your contribution to the mapping project will tell aid workers where human populations are, as well as what roads th...

18Sep

By Emma HalahanNo Comments

Opinion

So This Is Student Activism?

For many, student activism denotes the image of sit-ins, marches, protests and glamorous arrests with nights spent in a cell for the cause. That was the student activism of our parents and grandparents generation: unapologetic, radical and at the core of the nuclear disarmament, civil rights and women’s rights movements. This, however, is the 21st century and the face of activism and what it means to be an activist has changed significantly. Are students still at the heart of global movements? For previous generations, universities underpinned radical movements. They were the organising body mobilising large groups of students, many of whom were learning about the world's injustices in detail for the first time. Fuelled by anger at the establishment, it’s the students that gave us the s...