Zainab Salam
Monday Music: Mythologies of the self
June 15, 2025By: Zainab Salam, Staff Writer There is a strange beauty in the in-between. We often resist it — when life doesn’t offer clear beginnings or endings, where you are neither who you were nor who you will be. But as cultural theorist Homi Bhabha has explained, it is in this third space — the borderlands between identities, cultures, and selves — that new meanings emerge. This “in-between” is not a void, but a fertile terrain where hybrid selves are formed, where contradictions coexist and evolve. It’s where the rigid categories of identity begin to blur, allowing space for transformation. That’s…
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My letter to the News Editor: It’s time to put the fake back in news
June 13, 2025By: Zainab Salam, Concerned Staff Writer Dear Hannah (The Peak’s News Editor), I write to you today as both a concerned member of the SFU student body and a staff writer for The Peak. With every passing day, I become…
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Tŝilhqot’in Nation calls for action around the toxic drug crisis on the global stage
June 9, 2025By: Zainab Salam, Staff Writer On April 24, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, a delegation from the Tŝilhqot’in Nation presented a plan to combat the toxic drug crisis within their six member communities. This initiative follows…
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Italian-Estonian relations hit a bitter brew over Eurovision song
June 4, 2025By: Zainab Salam, Part-time barista Eurovision has presented the world with its fair share of entertaining spectacle. This year, the diversion presents a brewing controversy of the caffeinated kind. Estonian artist Tommy Cash’s performance of Estonia’s entry song, “Espresso Macchiato,”…
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“They” is correct, and so is respect
June 3, 2025By: Zainab Salam, Staff Writer Content warning: descriptions of misgendering and transphobia. A surge in anti-2SLGBTQIA+ hate crimes and discrimination in Canada over the past few years is emboldened by the anti-trans agenda pushed by right-wing figures like Pierre Poilievre.…
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Decolonizing education begins with reimagining
May 30, 2025By: Zainab Salam, Staff Writer A decade ago, at a seminar for newcomer youth in downtown Vancouver, an Indigenous speaker shared a powerful observation that stuck with me. He asked us to think about the shape of rooms in buildings,…
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Police presence outside Downtown Eastside harm reduction sites sparks concerns
May 28, 2025By: Zainab Salam, Staff Writer and Hannah Fraser, News Editor Healthcare workers and patrons in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) are voicing concerns that the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) is “deterring access to harm reduction sites.” Harm reduction is an “evidence-based…
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Relying on GenAI to write is a shortcut that sacrifices authenticity
May 22, 2025By: Zainab Salam, Staff Writer As a university student, the past few years have been odd. When I began my university career, the concept of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) felt like a futuristic thing that someone like me, who doesn’t…
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Breaking free from the screen
May 19, 2025By: Zainab Salam, Staff Writer In this digital age, screens are central to nearly every aspect of our lives: work, education, entertainment, and socialization. While technology offers unprecedented convenience and connectivity, it also brings the risk of screen addiction. While…
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Guy Who Knows it All advice column: Parking purgatory
May 19, 2025By: The Guy Who Knows it All I have a humongous problem on my hands. And I heard you’re the best at solving those since you’re a Beedie student! I mainly have classes on the Burnaby campus, and parking here…
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