Ashima Shukla

generic books on a bookshelf
2 min 0 1573

Brighter Side: a love letter to children’s books

Ashima Shukla June 15, 2025

I first met The Little Prince as a child, but it feels more accurate to say the book met —  and saw — through me. It told me that imagination was not foolish, that love and grief were bound together, and that growing up doesn’t mean surrendering wonder. I wept when the Little Prince left, but I also learned that love lives on in the stars and memory.  That was the beginning of a lifelong love of children’s books. It returned when I needed it most, during my fourth year of undergrad, overwhelmed by deadlines and anxieties about my future.…

Continue reading Read more
A protest against a pipeline in a city
4 min 0 1684

Against climate realism: reclaiming climate futures

Ashima Shukla June 10, 2025

In a recent article for the American think tank Council on Foreign Relations, senior fellow for energy and climate Varun Sivaram proposed a new doctrine for climate policy: climate realism. This seemingly pragmatic approach argues it’s impossible to avert climate…

Continue reading Read more
A person holding a sign that reads stop war, peace now
7 min 0 1564

When the state kills, who is the enemy?

Ashima Shukla June 10, 2025

Content warning: Mentions of war, violence, and death. We are often told war can be justified. Our history textbooks glorify national victories. Our films wrap bloodshed in orchestral scores. Our news headlines echo political speeches about defending our honour and…

Continue reading Read more
A collage of book covers for - (1) How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell (2) How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones (3) Stolen Voices by Zlata Filipović and Melanie Challenger (4) Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver
4 min 0 1770

Six non-fiction books that ask you to feel deeply

Ashima Shukla and Michelle Young June 3, 2025

I love books that breathe — that smile gently at me and invite me into their orbit; that ask, “Will you join me? Will you look at what you’ve been avoiding?” If you think non-fiction is about dry facts and…

Continue reading Read more
ILLUSTRATION: A cover of Joy Johnson's fictional memoir, Lead With Joy, Leader is Johnson. The Cover should say "SFU bookstore bestseller."
3 min 0 1617

Lead with Joy: how Johnson’s memoir is touching millions

Peak Web June 3, 2025

By: A humble grad student, forever changed Have you ever wondered, “what if Brené Brown ran a university like a Fortune 500 company — but make it The Chair?” Then SFU president Joy Johnson’s long-awaited, totally real, best-selling memoir is…

Continue reading Read more
a raven
4 min 0 1877

From the campus to the big screen: SFU student film goes global

Ashima Shukla May 28, 2025

What started as a class project has since turned into a creative awakening for Kitty Cheung, SFU alum and former Peak staff. Bringing together poetry, live action, and illustration, the short film Ad Hominem 2 is a bold act of…

Continue reading Read more
ILLUSTRATION: A drawing of the SFU sign with a giant X through it. Around it, scatter the words: uninspired, boring, cliché, butt ugly.
4 min 0 1304

Five things to replace the SFU sign with

Ashima Shukla May 21, 2025

In a shocking yet unsurprising twist, SFU was recently robbed of its soul. No, not our collective conscience! The logo on the SFU welcome sign at the foot of the campus. The beloved red symbol of caffeine dependency (foreshadowing your…

Continue reading Read more
ILLUSTRATION: A person with headphones contemplating the various aspects of life, in a state of wonderment (but not sad).
3 min 0 1408

Monday Music: When soft weather brings hard feelings

Ashima Shukla May 14, 2025

Driving through X̱wáýx̱way (Stanley Park) this morning, I noticed something that jolted me out of my usual daze of cherry blossoms and sunkissed daydreams: trees, felled and fallen. The ones standing didn’t look much better, thin and brittle with decay.…

Continue reading Read more
A person standing on a sidewalk at night, facing a storefront with multiple TV screens displaying a mixture of news outlets.
7 min 0 1578

Can news platforms build trust in a fractured world?

Ashima Shukla May 12, 2025

We find ourselves in a world where news media thrives on crises. Headlines are designed to scare, intimidate, divide, and most of all, keep us clicking. Across the world and he political spectrum, people are quick to claim “the other…

Continue reading Read more