Thom Cuffin-Munday, Author at The Orbital

1Nov

By Thom Cuffin-MundayNo Comments

Creative Writing

The Lake and Your Name

Hayley Geneva Her bare arms were a stark white in contrast to the murky turquoise of the lake. The sun’s rays pierced the surface and lit up the waters below in glistening fingers of light. She kept her eyes locked onto her arms and hands, following the course of each snaking movement. Occasionally her eyes would wander towards the black pit beneath her and she would begin to tilt, as if she were falling off a cliff, slipping into the sweet nothingness below her. She stopped for a moment to tread water and breathe in the summertime breeze, it began coiling itself around her face and shoulders. It’s okay, it seemed to say. There was an inflatable obstacle course to her right, and she could hear the children shrieking with laughter as they tumbled into the water. The sound vibrated t...

1Nov

By Thom Cuffin-MundayNo Comments

Creative Writing

I’ll tell you again

Elizabeth Ajao Jess There are so many bad smells. There’s that one that’s like rotten eggs that you encounter when it’s too hot. I think it’s sulphur. Then there’s that gross fishy scent someone has if they haven’t been washing properly, oh, and speaking of not showering there’s the seemingly omnipresent ‘BO’ that seems to follow all teenage boys around like a shadow. However, there is nothing quite like the Essence de Rotting Flesh that we smelt that night. Sorry, too much? Em It wasn’t very nice, no. It was really quite scary. I mean, when you get a call from your friend at 2am telling you to come meet her for a milkshake you don’t usually expect her to be dead. It only took us ten minutes to get there. I ju...

Living Your Dark Academic Dreams at RHUL

24Oct

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Culture & Literature, Literature

Living Your Dark Academic Dreams at RHUL

Simran Grewal If a large chunk of the reason you chose to attend Royal Holloway was due to seeing Founder’s Building in person, I’m sure you understand what I mean when I say that the Dark Academic in me yearned to study here. However, if you have no idea what a ‘dark academic’ is, here is the definition: heavily popularised by the app Tiktok, the ‘dark academic’ aesthetic revolves around higher education, the Romantic era, classical study, and of course neo-gothic architecture. Here I have some recommendations for some books that should be next on your dark academic reading list instead of doing your assigned reading that’s due tomorrow! The Secret History - Donna Tartt Perhaps the gateway novel into the world of academia, I would best describe The Secret History as the...

23Oct

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Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Diversity in the Indian film industry

During my studies for my Masters degree on Indian cinema I have come across a few issues with the country’s film industry. The emergence of powerful global campaigns for equality in recent years have strengthened movements against age-old discrimination. In Indian cinema in particular, the casting process for many Bollywood films is prone to neglecting diversity and having questionable requirements for the actors performing in the films, most commonly the desire for lighter-skinned Indians who are viewed as more ‘sellable’. ‘Brownfacing’ in Indian culture has been apparent for many years, even dating back to the depictions of deities as light-skinned, and lower caste people depicted as very dark-skinned, in order to enforce a skin colour hierarchy as part of tradition. As with many pro...

Historical Appropriation: Black History Month and WWII

23Oct

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Sports & Socs

Historical Appropriation: Black History Month and WWII

Owen Williams Whilst exploring the local area to our university I came across the Air Forces Memorial on Coopers Hill Lane near Kingswood. Ordinarily I have found the gates to be shut.On this particular day, however, the gates were open revealing the impressive portico of the grade II listed memorial. The RAF memorial on Coopers Hill Lane It is a beautiful building, the views over the Thames and London are incredible, you can even see Windsor castle. There’s a haunting element to its beauty, as the walls and columns are inscribed with the names of missing and dead men and women of the RAF, some of the twenty thousand who died in World War Two, with their names engraved in stone. Specifically, this memorial not only commemorates British air force personnel, but those ...

23Oct

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Science & Technology

Women in STEM

Rachael Cooper If you have been able to filter through the ever-churning news on COVID updates and the US presidential campaign, you might have seen that October has brought exciting news for the scientific community. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A Doudna have become the first two women to share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The prestigious achievement has been awarded for their work on genome editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 which holds very exciting possibilities for medical treatments, including cancer therapies, and innovating crops that could revolutionise how and where we grow them. Although this proves a huge victory for women in science, we must question why it is such a big deal. Since this highly regarded prize was initiated in 1901, 185 chemists have been awarded the priz...

23Oct

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Science & Technology

Diversity in STEM

Rida Haider The recent BLM movement raised awareness on various levels about the unfairness that exists in our society towards individuals of a certain representation. While the movement stemmed out of an unpleasant series of events, it left a question mark and raised eyebrows about the importance of diversity in a workforce, especially labs and universities. Being a student who studies this subject, I believe it is quite important to talk about the discrepancy in the scientific workforce, especially the importance of diversity. In my opinion, sectors of science dealing with scientists should encourage participation from as much a diverse participation as possible. It is the need of the hour to build a system where representation is diverse and an equal chance is given to scie...

Book review: Superior: The return of race science by Angela Saini

23Oct

By Thom Cuffin-MundayNo Comments

Science & Technology

Book review: Superior: The return of race science by Angela Saini

Sonia Shinhmar At the beginning of lockdown I joined an online seminar with Angela Saini, hosted by the Life Sciences and Environment department. I saw the email and I didn’t really know about the author or her books, but was encouraged to join the seminar by a fellow book loving friend. So, during the talk, Angela spoke about the research she did concerning race based science, and she also spoke about racism within the science community, so really, I didn’t know what her latest book was going to be about. Twenty-four hours later the book was in my hands and I couldn’t put it down! The book itself is 300-ish pages, an easy week/month read, or if you are just as interested as I was, three days! The book begins with a trip to the colonial celebration referred to as The British Museum...

26Sep

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Features

Acknowledging White Privilege

It has been 122 days since the death of George Floyd sparked uproar in communities around the world, and thrust the BLM movement into the public eye, bringing the issue of white privilege to the forefront once again. But how can we acknowledge our white privilege, and use it to instigate a move towards equality? White privilege means that none of the problems you have ever encountered have been because of the colour of your skin. Although we live in a society that prides itself on rewarding people for their achievements, this isn’t always the case, as systemic racism means that ethnic minorities are prevented from achieving the same success as their white counterparts regardless of how hard they work. White privilege has existed for so long that it is taken for granted because, for whi...

26Sep

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Features

Freshers’ Festival

Whether you’re a returner or a fresher, coming to university after this summer of chaos will no doubt be an exciting but scary time for us all. It’s a time when we have to learn to exist in this new normal, where ‘have you got your mask?’ is the question to ask before leaving the house, and where we must learn social distancing in occasions where we haven’t ever had to think about distancing before. Starting a new university, a new anything, can feel super intimidating, but not to worry, you will soon be surrounded by others in the exact same boat as you, who are feeling the same emotions you are. First year is an opportunity for everyone to slowly get accustomed to this new environment, and hey we’ve even made an app to make life easier this year! From virtual museum tours, to ‘Toasti...