Reimagining Masculinity in South Africa
For more than two decades after the apartheid, South Africa has been navigating its world of what it means to be a newly born democratic nation. During the apartheid, the government discriminated against homosexuality and punished same-sex relationships. Under the Civil Unions Act in 2006, South Africa became the first and only country in the African continent today that has legalized same-sex marriage. However, homosexuality is still institutionalized and framed negatively. In prisons, male rapes occur and blur the line between homosexuality and rape violence. Where does the future hold of queerness in South Africa?
Zen and the Floating World
Zen Buddhism is deeply rooted in Japan's culture from intellectual ink paintings to the perennial tea-drinking tradition known as Wabicha. Yet, a prominent art style during the Edo period has never been discussed with Zen among art historians and philosophers because of its eroticism: Ukiyo-e prints. What can we learn when Zen and the erotically-known art are collided?
