Clare Market Review, Issue One, Volume CV is the product of eight weeks work by a dozen-and-two strong editorial board and a whole heap of contributors. It is several-score pages long. Printed on pages sized eighth of A2, quarter of A3, half of A4, A5 one could say. Strong-spined - it's perfect bound with thick skin and an even thicker cover. The nice cardy cover wraps itself around glossy pages flooded with loads of stuff to entertain the eyes and satisfy your minds. STOP READING THIS. START READING CLARE.
What Might Not Have Been
Tam Thao PhamIt was 1975, she was an interpreter at the American Embassy in Saigon. She would translate for American soldiers as they administered lie detector tests to suspect double-agents. She was the oldest of seven, long black hair, lovely. She did not want for suitors. But she was the oldest of seven, a family had to [...] Read more »
From the Singularity We Emerged as One
Candace HoldsworthFor this project, I worked with a transgender model called Immani Da Silva, who is currently undergoing the transition from male to female. I tried to explore as well as contrast clinical, biological, more easily discernable attributes of what is considered to be female with a more organic, personal conception Read more »
Kamakura Kimonos #13
Clarisse Lehmann“You know you want to model the kimonos” my boss, Nakayama-san, said with a twinkle in her eyes I was pretty sure I did not but Japanese relationships work differently to those at home , she is my boss, my superior. “No” was never an option. I gulped, blinked and mumbled the expected reply; “I would love to take the hour-long train journey for a Kamakura adventure.” Read more »
Stuff a White Girl Likes
Mary CarmanI stand still at concerts — there’s no space to dance. I wear a scarf with a t-shirt. If my neck’s warm, I’m warm: what’s wrong with that? I’m a grad student; studying abroad, nogal. I have a moleskin notebook and dabble in vegetarianism. Yes, I am a white person. Read more »
New Orleans: The Ultimate Melting Pot
Hannah LangworthIn New Orleans’ Old Mint, a sometime arts space, and a refuge from the city’s damp and sticky summer weather, academic Michael Cogswell and curator Robert O’Meally are speaking about the city’s most famous son, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong. The event is part of a festival, the Satchmo Summerfest, held every August to celebrate Armstrong’s birthday, which includes seminars, food and, of course, jazz Read more »
Descartes
Sean GittensThe famous 17th Century French philosopher, Rene “The Ren” Descartes, noted for his proposal that the universe is made up of two distinct substances, mind and matter, has once more come under the philosophical spotlight thanks to the discovery of an early draft of his most famous work “The Meditations”.
The Silence Between Things
Samuel MessingLet me tell you what I think about when I walk…
Subaltern Studies
Tiberio SimonelliAn Earthy History of the Jewel in the Crown ‘History is written by the victors’: a phrase commonly attributed to Winston Churchill that does much to indict the nature of the subject. History as an intellectual field often tends to focus on elite levels of society, those that have come to dominate the affairs of states, societies and citizens.
Microfinance: Breaking the Boundaries of Traditional Finance
Priyanka VermaSay the word ‘finance,’ and investment bankers in navy suits is probably the picture you conjure. Microfinance, however, is turning our preconceived notions of finance on their head…
Would You Like Jihad With That?
Sara YasinAs he hesitantly listed his order, a thousand questions ran through her mind. However, there was only one question that she could ask at that moment.
Subcultures Without Boundaries
Christopher MartinMost people are happy to accept the existence of culture; it appears as a largely inoffensive and predominantly passive aspect of our lives, albeit an encompassing one.
The Bloomsbury Group
Angus WrennIt may come as something of a surprise to be reminded that the Hogarth Press (set up by Virginia and Leonard Woolf) was responsible for the publication not only of creative works – pioneering studies of consciousness as Woolf’s The Waves, and the adoption of post-Impressionist and Cubist techniques by Bloomsbury painters such as Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry – but also important works not normally associated with the literary world.
Circle of Iron
Philip RushworthReflections on Rwandan society and politics
Jasmine Jade
Chu Ting Ngin heartbreak, happiness, or extreme emotion this day will come.
Reflections in Ink
Allison GretsukA Visual and Historical Survey of Women in Western Tattooing The art and practice of tattooing has had a dramatic history, riding waves of popularity and discredit and spanning the globe for thousands of years.
Nets
Mary de BoerWhen I was living in Buguruni last fall — particularly after succumbing to malaria in September — my circadian rhythms were set such that sunset launched me full-tilt into no-holds-barred anti-mosquito warfare. In the hours after 7 p.m., I underwent ritual applications of 100% DEET spray (which stings mightily when applied to pores opened by a full day of heat and sweat).
The Original Subculture: The Demeaning of Style
Daniel B. YatesAt a wintry talk at last year’s Frieze festival, Clare editors heard notable voices from the music industry sit and discuss the nature of the underground in contemporary UK music. From white bohemia to black street music, the gamut was scoured for traces of underground resistance, and the most notable feature of the discursive results? -the end of subcultures as meaningful social spaces.
The Wall
David WoodbridgeOne of my favourite ever PostSecrets was a picture of a brick wall, with the words “sometimes we build walls, not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down” written on the front. I remember thinking at the time that such an observation seemed remarkably perceptive (especially to anyone who has been through adolescence). It is also as good a summation as any of the story and overall theme of Pink Floyd’s album The Wall, released some thirty years ago.
An English Girl Examines the Cypriot Wall from the Southern Side
Elli GrahamDuring the 1970s and 1980s, my mother and her two sisters followed a great Cypriot tradition and went to the UK, one after the other, to study for their degrees. While both my aunts studied law and eventually returned to Cyprus to pursue their careers, my mum, the middle sister, chose architecture and ended up staying in the UK.
Bordering on Madness
Alice OllsteinSuffering and resistance where the U.S. meets Mexico. It is a felony to place anything—art, graffiti, a message—on the U.S. side of the border wall with Mexico. On the Mexican side, this is a survival tactic, a way to make the ugly metal wall more bearable, more meaningful, more their own.
Boundaries of the sea
Shiu Wo LeungIn 1967, inspired by the Cultural Revolution in China, riots broke out in Hong Kong… The room was boiling with the summer sun. The rays penetrated the damp air and shone on the flying pieces of dust. My back was itching all over with sweat and Mama put a thick, rough handkerchief underneath my T-shirt, so I bent my arms behind to rub the piece of cloth against my back.
In Order to Maintain the Integrity of the Berlin Wall
Steve BagleyNovember 9 2009. Segments of the wall stand clean of dust behind a rope barrier, with a warning: “In order to maintain the integrity of the Berlin Wall, please do not touch.” This is how we remember history in America.
A Farewell to East Germany
Oliver FritzIf I could be granted one wish, it would be to relive the night of 9 November 1989, as I and 1,099,997 other East Berliners broke through the Wall to join the party on West Berlin’s famous boulevard, the Ku’damm.
A year on from its reawakening, Clare Market Review, the journal of the LSE SU, is back with a vengeance. Last year's successes were recognised in the form of two Guardian Student Media Awards short-listings – and with such success came expectation in need of fulfilling.
With a fresh-faced editorial board nestled into a brand-spanking new office filled to the brim with hopeful enthusiasm and misplaced creativity, we hit the ground running and set about smashing through glass ceilings and leaping beyond expectations wherever possible: launching Clare's closest sibling, Clive, on the cyber-waves; piloting a special projects initiative; and recruiting more LSE talent than ever to feature in our first print issue of the year. You are holding hours of ardent Clare loving in your hands.
In this issue, Clare explores "boundaries." At LSE, the focus is often on breaking them down in pursuit of a common passion, but we find that destroying barriers often means confronting them head on. You will read how "Walls and Borders" do more than divide us physically; they challenge our concepts of home, likeness, national identity, and history. In "(Sub) Cultures," Clare explores the self-perpetuating boundaries of societal association – whether voluntary, as in tattoo culture, or imposed as in the case of the Batutsi and Bahutu in Rwanda; whether generational or class-based. "Perception(s)" will challenge you to question it all: how our perceptions influence loan recipients and how we study history; how we perceive these limitations; how perceptions affect who we are and what we're doing here. (Are you sure you're actually holding Clare?)
We hope you enjoy delving into the beautiful, multifaceted, and occasionally humorous content as much as we have (and if not, the burden's on you to contribute next time.)
If you find you need more regular lovings from Clare, please send us an email (su.claremarketreview@lse.ac.uk) with your contact details and we promise to keep you abreast of all the wonderfulness that is Clare.
Happy reading,
Clare
Editor-in-Chief
Sean Baker
Web Editor
Alexandra Kane
Editors
Rena Barch and Katie Rowland
Production Editor
Eric King
Creative Directors
Meredith Bailey and Lydia Sprenger
Copy Editors
John deGraft-Johnson, Kwaku Awaku-Asabre, Amelia Iuvino, Dave Randall
Development Managers
Daniella Lock and Paul McQueen
Special Projects Editor
Annalise Toberman
Very Special Thanks to Online Architect and Cyber Tsar
Sean Milicentmistoffelees Deel
Contributors
Alice Ollstein, Angus Wrenn, Candice Holdsworth, Christopher Martin, ChuTing Ng, David Woodbridge, Daniel B. Yates, Eric King, Elli Graham, Mary de Boer, Oliver Fritz
Philip Rushworth, Priyanka Verma, Sacha Robehmed, Samuel Messing, Sara Yasin, Sean Gittins, Shiu Wo Leung, Steve Bagley, Tiberio Simonelli, Clarisse Lehmann, Mary Carman, Hannah Langworth
Photos by Cherie Leung, Amelia Iuvino and Clive!