Empire Times is a bold, playful, and thought-provoking student read—perfect for the bus, better with hindsight.
I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Empire Times, the student magazine at Flinders.
As a staff member, I’m not the intended audience but that hasn’t stopped me from thoroughly enjoying the 2025 issues on my bus rides:
📖 Issue 1 – Volume 52
📖 Issue 2 – Volume 52
The content is bold and expressive, ranging from quirky to politically charged, absurd to deeply thoughtful.
When you spend much of your time producing mild, informative (hopefully) content, as I often do, you can forget what it’s like to simply enjoy reading something. You also forget what it’s like to use language playfully.
A lot of what I write is for health promotion and in the past for peer-reviewed publication. Add AI into the mix – as I often do to help develop content more efficiently – and what you end up with is clear and useful but sometimes stripped of flavour. The personality of your writing gets diluted in the name of clarity, consistency, or speed.
So it’s been refreshing to sit with a publication where the words have edges. Where the voice of the writer isn’t polished smoothly into oblivion. Probably part of the reason I enjoy working with creative writers too. (That’s a post for another day.)
It’s also reminded me of something:
You don’t always realise how good something is until you’ve moved past the phase when it was meant for you. I studied at Flinders myself, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t engage with the magazine at the time and I know I lost out as a result. I would likely have had something to contribute, given that was a more creative time in my life. That’s hindsight for you.
🎓 So, if you’re a current student—don’t make the same mistake I did.
📚 See a copy lying around (you’ll find plenty at FUSA)
👉 Grab it.
🚌 Read it on the bus or on a bench or during lectures
♻️ Recycle it.
✍️ And if you’re particularly inspired… consider contributing something yourself.
