Hello!
Writing this on a hot Sunday afternoon at my local brewery. Note to self, work from the pub more often.
Kicking the year off with a classic ins and outs years. Here’s to a productive and fun 2024 ✨
I’ve been working on something in the background on influencers as politicians and politicians as influencers. I’ll be back soon with something more substantive. I also have a mini travel diary from my trip to the US late last year fo my IVLP on Indo-Pacific maritime security and the Quad where I went to DC, Bost, San Diego and Honolulu. Is that something you’d want to read? Inspired by Van Jackson’s Track II travelog in Fiji…
In
Election watching (not just US, half of the world is voting this year!)
Moving our bodies (who knew working out improved mental health, gross)
Unfollowing people on socials
Nominating your besties for Young Australians’ in International Affairs’ Young Women to Watch
Joining buy/swap Facebook groups
Journaling and more generally writing for fun not work
Reading outside of your area of expertise
Out
Giving your opinion on issues you’re not an expert in
Saving everything’s about/because of China. Don’t be lazy, read up on local politics and issues
All white and/or male podcast lineups, reading reccomendations and citation list
Social media peer buying pressure (I bought a Stanley and it’s so heavy it’s made my lip bleed on three occasions, yes I am also an idiot)
Twitter/X
Mocktails that cost $23
Buying new clothes
Summer reads
Extremely Online by Taylor Lorenz
Victoria Cooper’s US election reading list
Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance by Shourideh C. Molavi (out Feb 2024)
Return of the Junta by Olivia Snow
But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu
Sweat and Salt Water: Selected Works from Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa (one of my most cherished academic books)
Grand Strategies of the Left: The Foreign Policy of Progressive Worldmaking by Van Jackson
To conclude, in honor of 2023 being the year of the Girls resurgence…
God that Jemima Kirke post is iconic