Protests on Paper
I’m sitting in the Fryer Library, flipping through a collection of Semper Floreat issues from 1966. An orange slip of paper is nestled between the pages of an edition published on 17th March 1966. The words “Vietnam Protest Week March 21-27” are in a large, bold font. Some of the items on the agenda include […]
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Domestic Politics Through the Ages
1944 – University and the War UQ, like most institutions throughout Australia, took part in the Second World War effort. Quotas were fixed for the university to meet in regards to research and other special work that arose out of the need to prepare Australia for war. Courses in malaria control, refrigeration technology and combating chemical […]
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Interview with Matt Mawson, Semper Cartoonist 1978-1985
I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, cartooning. I was getting pretty quirky. The media was pretty conservative back then, and this was something amateurish but really interesting music and commentary. I got their subscriber magazine. It used to come out every month. It was the same size as Semper but more cheaply produced, […]
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Trans Day of Visibility and Beyond: Rally and March
A ragtag group of local trans activists and community-builders (including Magandjin People’s Pride and UQU Queer Collective) organised a march and rally on the 30th of March for Transgender Day of Visibility (31st March). This was one part of a National Day of Action for transgender resistance, with similar events held in every state and […]
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Pope Francis
By the time this goes to print, the death of the Pope may be old news – but we thought it was important to mention. At 88 years old, Pope Francis passed away in late April, on Easter Monday. While Semper is not affiliated with religion in any way, the passing of the head of […]
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Environmental Collective Column #1
Welcome to the Environmental Collective Column! At UQU Environment, we are proud to be a collective driven by students, for students. That’s why we’re so excited to be launching the Environmental Collective column as an ongoing contribution to the Semper newspaper. We hope to create a space to spotlight the incredible environmental work happening across […]
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From Scans to Soil: A Woman’s Journey in Science, Sustainability, and Leadership
Between Two Worlds When I tell people that I moved from nuclear medicine to agriculture, their first reaction is usually confusion. “How does that even happen?”, they ask. To most, these fields seem worlds apart, one is rooted in high-tech diagnostics; the other in soil and seasons. But for me, the transition wasn’t about leaving […]
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Why I Became an Anarchist
It’s a question I get asked all the time. Okay, that was a lie, but it has been asked once or twice. The simplified definition of anarchism is that it’s a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish institutions that perpetuate authority, hierarchy and/or coercion. It calls for a stateless society and targets capitalism […]
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U.K. Supreme Court Ruling Puts Trans Women at Risk
On Wednesday, 16th April 2025, it was announced that five judges from the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the terms “woman”, “man”, and “sex” would refer only to biological sex assigned at birth, excluding transgender people, including those with a gender recognition certificate (GRC). What does this mean for transgender people of the United […]
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Lit Corner: Gothic Fiction and the Vampiric Other (Dracula by Bram Stoker)
Gothic fiction has been a popular literary genre since it was first conceived in Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. While Gothic fiction is varied, three main aspects characterise the genre: an environment of fear, threats of the supernatural, and intrusion of the past onto the present. Sometimes, these three combine into one […]
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