The Conversation

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The Conversation's Latest Articles

drama class. A group of young performers in an alley are all stretching their arms out and looking up in formation. The younger woman in the middle is in a greeny blue sleeveless dress.
Education & Student News

What’s the point of drama class? Ask employers...

For a start, drama classes teach the workplace skills employers want.

Having a self-employed partner can significantly reduce your life satisfaction. A couple hold hands, but stare in opposite directions, as if each needs something different to the other.
Career Advice

Married to the job? How having a self-employed partner might be hurting your happiness

The pressures of self-employment can have a significant impact on one's partner, writes Hassan Kalantari Daronkola.

A composite image featuring the covers of a range of Australian books.
Features

Best Australian books of the 21st century: as chosen by 50 experts

The Books & Ideas team at 'The Conversation' and their literary friends, list their favourite Australian books of this century.

An overhead photograph of an adult dance class, showing groups of couples circling around the floor.
Features

Sports policy focuses on the grassroots: is this missing from arts policies?

Should Australian arts policy focus more on participation instead of audiences, asks Margaret Seares.

Tay Lawler, a balding, older Anglo-Australian man wearing a white shirt and tie, stands in front of a theatre advertising the 1977 revival of 'Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'. He is holding a pink Kewpie Doll, like those featured in the play.
Features

Vale Ray Lawler: the playwright who changed the sound of Australian theatre

Julian Meyrick reflects on the death of playwright Ray Lawler and his landmark play, 'Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'.

pay rise. Over a business desk one hand passes a clipboard to someone else's hand.
Career Advice

How to succeed when negotiating a new salary or a pay rise

When negotiating for a pay rise, always take the time to consider the other party's situation and capabilities.

A dynamic photo of a two-piece punk band playing live. A dark haired man in a black t-shirt plays the guitar as he sings into a microphone; behind him a woman plays drums.
Features

Australian musicians in dire straits yet Triple J won’t shift its commercial focus

Why does the taxpayer-funded Triple J consistently play commercially oriented pop at drive time instead of Australian indie?

A robot uses its mechanical fingers to play the keyboard.
Features

AI doesn’t mean human-made music is doomed. Here’s why

Human music-making isn’t going anywhere, argues the University of Melbourne's Alexander Crooke.

Woman dressed in black seated on floor playing black guitar.
Features

The arts are being sidelined in the cost of living crisis

It’s time we stopped framing the arts as a luxury instead of a human right threatened by the cost of living…

The ACMF music program at Cobham Youth Justice Centre NSW. Photo: Supplied. Two people in red polo shirts sitting outside on a bench. One is holding a guitar with the head down while the other appears to be teaching.
Features

How music in youth detention can create new futures

Music allows incarcerated youth with opportunities to redefine themselves from young offenders to young artists, writes Alexis Anja Kallio.

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