Maya Kokerov

Maya Kokerov takes us through her recommendations of books by women you should be reading this year.
March was Women’s History Month, a month dedicated to commemorating and celebrating not only women themselves but the vital role they have played in shaping history, culture and society. Sadly, March also transformed into a moment of deep reflection on the systemic discrimination and violence which women are victim to daily. Sarah Everard’s murder, in the week around International Women’s Day,...

“TikTok is letting young women be more themselves without shame. It’s also helping society realise that things shouldn’t be dismissed simply by virtue of being liked by girls.”

The future of journalism has never been more unpredictable, but 21 aspiring or newly established young journalists from a wide range of countries recently tried to look ahead to “The European Media Landscape in 2030” over four weeks of digital seminars. LSE Media and Communications MSc graduate Maya Kokerov reports on the M100 YEJ Workshops, part of the Sanssouci Colloquium.
It’s clear that digitalisation is becoming the main technological trend for our social and cultural life. Beyond mere e...

Under the title "The local-global nexus: Exploring new strategies for local journalism in the post-covid era", this year's participants of the Young European Journalists Workshop (M100YEJ) dealt with the future of (local) journalism in a global world along the dimensions of politics, economy, society and innovation from August 27 to September 17, 2020. The central focus of the workshop was the subsequent interdisciplinary scenario process on the future of Europe's media landscape in 2030. An ...

Cover magazine, p 40-47, ‘How COVID-19 infected fashion’

Commercialised St. Valentines’ Day is fast-approaching and yes, its still lockdown. We’ve all been looking for a reason to celebrate or dress up during these isolated times and what better way than an annual (albeit capitalist) holiday? For long-distance lovers living apart, for those lucky enough to be locked down together and for your own self-love; here’s an inspirational list of things to treat yourself/your partner to this Valentines Day.
We can promise they won’t be too cheesy, although...

Retrofuturism is the fantastical dream of our past. It refers to how people of bygone eras envisioned the future, and its distinctive aesthetic has breathed renewed life in fashion, furniture and, naturally, across social media.
Here’s a very basic analogy of retrofuturism:
In Steven Spielberg’s Back to the Future II (1989), all the skater boys are armed with hoverboards instead of the electric scooters we’re making do with now. Needless to say, our 2015 looked a bit more prosaic than Spielbe...

Just off the main entrance of Somerset House, you enter a room where time moves more slowly than the place from which you came. Two silhouettes in the distance metamorphose into distinct figures, chaotically draped in full-skirted gowns – one in royal blue ruffles with dashes of stark white linen, the other chaotically adorned in hues of pink and purple and placed slightly off kilter, her hands straining for balance. Dozens of thick tentacles, belonging to the octopus which has seemingly engu...

It’s undoubtedly been a tough year felt globally in 2020 but the one constant, the one thing that may have got us through, is the unmatched greatness of sounds and reverberations that come together to make music. Here’s our summation of album faves this year.
Tame Impala, The Slow Rush
A brilliant body of work. Kevin Parker really produced this from partly what remained after the Australian bushfires where his home studio is. From beginning to end, each track is made up of a stellar instrumen...

tw: some reference to sexual assault
Strangely, this ‘gritty’ teen drama didn’t get as much buzz as its counterparts. When I first heard the name Grand Army, it didn’t entice my cinematic appetite. Picturing knights and trenches and all the other wartime imagery instilled in me by Key Stage 3 English, I didn’t know it would become so addictive.
A chorus of Bodak Yellow is rhythmically twerked and shouted to in the periphery of the opening scene and, just like that, we’re directly hurled into ...

With Halloween around the corner and a second season of quarantine pending (sans Tiger King this time), I decided that one of the quirkiest feminine films of all time, Anna Biller’s The Love Witch, deserved a re-watch. I honestly can’t believe I studied this in my Philosophy of Film class, but I’m far from complaining; it’s simply iconic and amusing in a bizarre way.
On the first watch, you may be confused, left wondering what kind of banal ‘feminist’ message could possibly be delivered in a ...

On the surface, Circumstance (2011) depicts the emotive, tumultuous journey of Atafeh and her orphaned best friend Shireen. They fall in love in Iran, where tensions mount between the underground youth culture, particularly their steps toward LGBTQ rights. and the post-revolution customs that become increasingly embraced by some characters, especially Atafeh’s incredibly creepy brother, Mehran.
The chemistry between the two protagonists, and the actresses who play them (Nikohl Boosheri and Sa...

Nicknamed ‘La Serenissima’ after repeatedly described as ‘serene’ by people of high importance, Venice is one of the most historically and culturally preserved European cities. The title is well-deserved, especially in winter, when there are few loitering, selfie-hungry tourists who remind you that you’re just another one of them. Foggy spells interspersed with sunshine and drizzle create a gothic ambience as you walk over bridges and squeeze your frame down claustrophobically narrow alleyway...

In 2019, women are widely accepted in the Western world as equally valuable in potential, ability, and rights relative to men, in contrast to men’s history of privilege. But is this only a formality?
‘I am this’ and ‘I believe this’ are not the same thing. You cannot label yourself a feminist and at the same time deride those who choose to mentally or physically distance themselves from stereotypically masculine traits. Femininity in all genders should not be spurned.
Gap recently launched a ...

The nude as a concept has made waves on the digital sea ever since the infamous 2007 nude leak, when Disney stars like Vanessa Hudgens became the victim of a scandalous violation of privacy. But this sensationalised pop culture phenomenon was birthed by classical art dating back to before Christ; the human body has always been both celebrated and scorned in its natural state in the forms as varied as sculpture and Instagram art accounts. There are many scandalous examples to choose from, but ...