Semper Floreat is the University of Queensland Union's free & independent student newspaper.
As a wildlife biology student, I find that often the best learning of the natural world may be found not in books or classrooms, but with the wildlife one wishes to study. I formerly documented the wildlife of Victoria and Malaysia whenever I returned on expeditions. Now in a master’s degree, I find myself relocated […]
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Welcome to the UQU Environmental Collective Column! At UQU Environment, we are proud to be a collective driven by students, for students. Through this column, we hope to create a space to spotlight the incredible environmental work happening across campus, from cutting-edge research to clubs and individuals that are making a real impact. Our goal […]
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Early this April, when British alternative band Pulp released their first album single in 24 years, fans were relatively united in their enjoyment of the track. But controversy swiftly developed among certain sets of Instagram commenters upon the rather shocking discovery that the accompanying music video, “directed” by frontman Jarvis Cocker, was his attempt to […]
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My heart races, thumping a staccato rhythm through my chest. My palms slicken and sweat seeps through the fibres of my t-shirt. Mum and dad sit across the dining table from me. Our dirty plates sit in front of us almost cleared of the meat and three-veg that was mum’s specialty. I had barely tasted […]
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Completing a PhD is challenging under regular circumstances, but even more so when you’re a trans person hiding who you are. This was part of my motivation for coming out in the past year, a decision I had put off for years because in my home country, serious violations of LGBTQ rights are commonplace, and […]
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The primary subtractive colours of cyan, magenta, and yellow can be mixed to create all the colours of the rainbow. For our Queer Edition, I’m gifting you birdies proudly displaying these colours. Cyan – Superb Fairywren (Malurus cyaneus) A recently-published study, ‘Personality predicts song complexity in superb fairy-wrens’, reveals that superb fairywrens’ beautiful songs hold […]
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“Butch is masculinity without men, femininity without compromise, and queerness without apology”. If you’ve been in lesbian circles lately, or especially if you’ve tried dating as a lesbian, you’ve probably heard people joke about the “masc shortage”. Well, if we’re facing a masc shortage, then we’re in the midst of an all-out Butch Crisis. But […]
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So here we are at last, our final dinner taken ‘neath dripping, blurry candlelight Across the table, through the sandstorm, you seek my eye Words are grains of sand, falling Words that have already met with silence For the sake of an easy farewell when before you rose from my arms and were gone … […]
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Dig. That’s the first thing they say to me, When I wake in that muddy field, Dig. They press a shovel to my chest, It’s rough wood, heavy and cruel in my new hands. Dig. They say once more, I do not know anything else but – Dig. The earth had birthed […]
Continue ReadingBetween F and M And warnings that Deviation May betray my safety in certain countries, I choose ‘other’, Unspecified, Undetermined. I *am* other. I am outside and both And nothing all at once and Fluctuating // deviating From expectations: From the ‘safe’ route. X is who I am. I am willing to forfeit my ease […]
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