Tag Archives: Leuphana

Sit, Drink, Eat, Repeat

By Nina Preußler

Did you know that there are now more dan­ger­ous­ly over­weight than mal­nour­ished peo­ple in the world? With over one third of their pop­u­la­tion clas­si­fied as obese, the Unit­ed States is one of the coun­tries most affect­ed. It’s easy to jump to con­clu­sions and dis­miss the ‘obe­si­ty epi­dem­ic’ as a symp­tom of ever-grow­ing lazi­ness in the West­ern world. Instead, the tripling of the obe­si­ty rate in the U.S. over the last 50 years can most­ly be attrib­uted to obe­so­genic envi­ron­ments. You’re ask­ing your­self what that is?

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We Own the Majority: Mayans M.C. Brings Drama, Representation, and Larger-Than-Life Grit

By Hannah Quinque

Pho­to by Ste­qvc at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MayansMC.png#/media/File:MayansMC.png.

FX’s Mayans M.C. is a dra­ma series show­cas­ing a world of guns and drugs around a bik­er gang in SoCal, right at the US-Mex­i­can bor­der. Can a set­ting rid­dled with stereo­types present a back­drop for desir­able rep­re­sen­ta­tion with its prin­ci­pal­ly Mex­i­can Amer­i­can (Chi­cano) char­ac­ters? Let’s look beyond the basic premise and find out how Mayans M.C., for all its machis­mo, tells tales full of life sel­dom fea­tured, off- as well as on-screen.

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Travelogues

By Maria Moss

What exact­ly is a trav­el­ogue? Or, asked dif­fer­ent­ly, what is it not? A trav­el­ogue is not an adver­tise­ment that tries to sell spe­cif­ic des­ti­na­tions to its read­ers. A trav­el­ogue is not a guide­book with a list of the top 10 best restau­rants or mas­sage places. Rather, a trav­el­ogue is a cre­ative nar­ra­tive of someone’s expe­ri­ences while traveling.

Trav­el­ogues focus on and cel­e­brate the dif­fer­ences in tra­di­tions and cus­toms around the world; very often, they’re con­ver­sa­tion­al in tone and filled with fun­ny details (see, for instance, Bill Bryson’s Sto­ries from a Small Island). Good trav­el­ogues con­tain vivid descrip­tions and sen­so­ry details; unex­pect­ed, maybe even trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ences; and accounts of inter­ac­tions with local peo­ple. Trav­el­ogues can also com­bine fic­tion­al and fac­tu­al ele­ments, as one of the great­est trav­el writ­ers, Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989), beau­ti­ful­ly demon­strat­ed (e.g. the sto­ries deal­ing with his trip to Aus­tralia, The Song­lines). Fic­tion­al or non-fic­tion­al, fun­ny or not – above all, a trav­el­ogue must tell a story.

The fol­low­ing two trav­el­ogues, writ­ten by cre­ative writ­ing stu­dents in the fall semes­ter 2022/23, each tell a sto­ry. One takes place in the Ecuadore­an rain­for­est, the oth­er in Venice.

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A Nude Dance

By Rizwan Wazir

New Year’s Eve is prac­ti­cal­ly upon us once again. Do you always feel guilty for being lazy and not ‘hav­ing fun’ on all the ‘impor­tant’ occa­sions? If so, then instead of curs­ing your­self or the uni­verse for your lone­li­ness, you can choose to be at peace. Instead of scrolling through the Insta­gram feeds of your friends, you can scroll through your own life his­to­ry. Here is a recipe that will make the night one to remem­ber, even if you’re all alone:

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Happy Hanukkah 2022!

By Sabrina Völz

If you live in the Unit­ed States or in many oth­er places in the world, it’s impos­si­ble not to know any­thing about Christ­mas. How­ev­er, the same can­not nec­es­sar­i­ly be said about the Jew­ish hol­i­day of Hanukkah, which begins tonight, on Decem­ber 18, and runs until Mon­day, Decem­ber 26. In hon­or of the Feast of Ded­i­ca­tion, some­times referred to as the Fes­ti­val of Lights, I’d like to invite you to watch this short, infor­ma­tive video:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDMoklVYsvU

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What Does the Fox Say? A Simple Tale with a Plethora of Possibilities

By Maryann Henck

When I first read George Saun­ders’ fable-like tale, Fox 8, I ini­tial­ly felt amused, then sad, and final­ly out­raged. I also felt a blog brew­ing – not of the book review vari­ety but of the teach­ing tool/creativity cor­ner vari­ety. For starters, Fox 8 is less of a charm­ing bed­time sto­ry for chil­dren – who will no doubt enjoy it – and more of a dark­ly com­ic cau­tion­ary tale for adults. The tit­u­lar first-per­son nar­ra­tor takes the read­ers on a jour­ney through his life as a fox who lives and for­ages with his fel­low fox­es in the for­est. Fox for­est life is run­ning smooth­ly until Fox 8 has his first con­fus­ing encounter with humans, which results in con­flict­ing feelings.

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