Sydney Ideas

Is there a degree of suffering and degradation beyond which a man or a woman ceases to be a human being? A point beyond which our spirit dies and only pure physiology survives? And to what extent, if any, may literary culture be capable of preserving the integrity of our humanity? These are some of the questions that this lecture proposes to consider with reference to two places where extreme suffering is inflicted – the fictional hell imagined by Dante in his Inferno, and the real hell experienced by Primo Levi at Auschwitz and described in If This Is A Man. SPEAKER: Professor Lino Pertile, Carl A. Pescosolido Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

A panel of the University of Sydney experts and practitioners discuss the possible benefits and risks of mindfulness, and how it has been used in education and workplace to produce resilient students and healthy employees. Speakers: Professor Gwynnyth Llewellyn, Chair, Healthy Sydney University Professor Nick Glozier, Brain and Mind Centre Associate Professor Rae Cooper, Sydney Business School Professor Jane Burns, Faculty of Health Sciences Ms Jane Cox, consultant and leadership coach Dr Benjamin Veness, medical registrar, Sydney alumnus and Churchill Fellow Co-hosted by Sydney Ideas and Healthy Sydney University, a university-wide initiative that brings staff and students together to promote the health and wellbeing of our University community. More event information http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/can_mindfulness_save_the_world_forum.shtml

Is mindfulness all about the individual practice? What is the role of community when it come to the issues of well-being? How could institutions such as universities enhance emotional well-being of its employees and students? Dr Benjamin Veness, the University of Sydney alumnus and Churchill Fellow offers some solutions.

Don Watson and fellow Quarterly Essayist James Brown discuss the strangest election campaign the US has ever seen.

Approaching death is an opportunity for individuals and those who care for them to reduce unnecessary suffering and achieve something more human and humane. Sadly, few dying people or their carers achieve these ends. What can we do differently ? In this exclusive Sydney Ideas event, Dr Bruce (BJ) Miller, a TED speaker and hospice and palliative medicine physician, reveals how The Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco is redesigning palliative care to bring compassion and imagination to the care of the dying. His presentation was followed by an expert panel discussion and opportunities to ask questions.

The twentieth century saw the emergence of a number of authoritarian regimes – China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, the USSR – that have both challenged the global order and persisted in the face of massive external pressure and catastrophic economic downturns. Drawing on in-depth case studies and statistical analysis, Lucan Way (University of Toronto) argues that the threat and resilience of such regimes can be traced to their origins in violent revolutionary conflict. A history of violent revolutionary struggle encourages external aggression but also inoculates regimes against major causes of authoritarian breakdown such as military coups and mass protest. More info: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_lucan_way.shtml

Humans are superorganisms with two genomes that dictate phenotype, the genetically inherited human genome (25,000 genes) and the environmentally acquired human microbiome (over 1 million genes). The two genomes must work in harmonious integration as a hologenome to maintain health. Nutrition plays a crucial role in directly modulating our microbiomes and health phenotypes. Poorly balanced diets can turn the gut microbiome from a partner for health to a “pathogen” in chronic diseases, e.g. accumulating evidence supports the new hypothesis that obesity and related metabolic diseases develop because of low-grade, systemic and chronic inflammation induced by diet-disrupted gut microbiota. Due to the tight integration of gut microbiota into human global metabolism, molecular profiling of urine metabolites can provide a new window for reflecting physiological functions of gut microbiomes. Changes of gut microbiota and urine metabolites can thus be employed as new systems approaches for quantitative assessment and

Indonesia has struggled with corruption in its natural resource sector, with unchecked environmental destruction the result . Laode M Syarif, the newly elected Commissioner for Indonesia Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) presents recent progress in the prevention and prosecution of corruption.

Legal academic Professor Annalise Acorn argues that criminal punishment, devoid of all emotions of blame, is inhuman in relation to the offender and contrary to a morally robust justification for the criminal law. More info about this lecture and the speaker: tinyurl.com/zfya9qc

Lecture by Professor Fran Bagenal, Co-investigator and Leader of the Plasma Teams for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and Juno mission to Jupiter, and Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado. A Sydney Ideas talk co-presented with Sydney SpaceNet at the University of Sydney, 22 September 2016. http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_fran_bagenal.shtml

What happens in China today – from economic to political and cultural events – already has an impact on the rest of the world. As its global influence increases, what does the future hold? Working closely with China Studies Centre and University of Sydney researchers, Sydney Ideas has provided a platform for local and international China experts to share their insights into this fascinating country over the last 10 years.

Professor Richard Salomon from Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington presents an overview of his experiences in studying the oldest manuscripts of Buddhism. These manuscripts, written on birch bark scrolls in the Gāndhārī language which was once spoken in what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan, date back as far as the first century BC. Salomon has been leading their study since they first came to light in 1995 and is now preparing an anthology of translations from them intended for a broad audience. In this lecture, he explains how the discovery and interpretation of these unique documents has transformed the study of ancient Buddhism.

Following its military successes in Iraq and Syria, and especially after the terrorist attacks in Paris and Belgium, the Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has become a focus of media attention as the Western world attempts to understand its intentions. But is the international media capable of representing the complexity of the jihadist phenomenon without simplifying the Islamic State as a terrorist organisation only? Does political exploitation of the fear of terrorism blur the nature of the caliphate of al-Baghdadi, heightening an already ambiguous understanding of Islam (or 'true' Islam) and suspicion of Muslims living in the West? Barbara De Poli aims to provide an accessible interpretation of the IS phenomenon, restoring its complexity and explaining its basic traits. She discusses the ideological roots of IS, highlighting the gap between the Islamic doctrinal tradition and the religious principles widespread by the extremists. Secondly, she examines the po

Retiring from the city to the country is a popular Australia dream. But what are these retirees’ lives like, and what should we know to help improve them? Speaker: Professor Catherine Driscoll, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies THIS LECTURE WAS HELD ON 8 September, 2016 at the University of Sydney as part of the Sydney Ideas and the Insights Lectures series. For more about Insights lecture series see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/Insights2016.shtml

Each year around 55,000 Australians suffer a heart attack, and almost 9,000 will die as a result. We know that obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking can raise the risk of a heart attack - but what about the factors you aren’t aware of? From literally dying of a broken heart to unrecognised genetic conditions to complications from the medicines we take, our panel of experts will discuss triggers for heart attacks you didn’t know about and how to prevent them. We invite you to join us for this informative and important talk, which will be followed by an extended opportunity for questions and answers. Panelists: - Professor Chris Semsarian, cardiologist, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Head of Molecular Cardiology Program Centenary Institute - Associate Professor Thomas Buckley, preventative cardiovascular researcher, Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney - Professor Andrew McLachlan, Program Director NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Medicines and Ageing, Facul

For several decades after the Second World War, capitalism regulated by democratic politics proved successful. Rapid growth and equitable distribution supported by open markets ended the pessimism about instability and inequality that permeated Joseph Schumpeter’s classic Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942) written during the war against Fascism. Now doubts are rising again: in the developed countries, incomes have stopped growing for most people. Inequality is increasing. Vested interests are blocking stabilising interventions. Democracies are rejecting international exchange. And all this is happening at the very moment market authoritarianism in China is breaking the link between high incomes and democratic government. Ross Garnaut’s public lecture probes these trends, and the new forces shaping the major global developments of our time. He notes how the abundance of capital, labour shortages and rising prosperity in parts of the global economy are elsewhere matched by political introversion, econ

Western democracies have seen a resurgence in far-right populist movements. Alongside disaffection with mainstream political parties, there has been agitation against immigration and multiculturalism. How are we to make sense of these developments? What do they mean for race relations? And what implications do they have for our democratic future? Tim Soutphommasane is Race Discrimination Commissioner and commenced his five-year appointment on 20 August 2013. Prior to joining the Australian Human Rights Commission, he was a political philosopher and held posts at the University of Sydney and Monash University. His thinking on multiculturalism, national identity and patriotism has been influential in shaping debates in Australia and Britain.

As a modern idea, national conscience dates back to the anti-slavery campaign of the late eighteenth century. Its origins were Christian, yet they arose from notions of national character. Alan Atkinson’s suggests that, in an age of reviving nationalism, when several of the world’s main problems depend on the will of governments, national conscience has a new relevance and a new urgency. Alan Atkinson is the inaugural Australian Book Review RAFT Fellow, and this major public lecture is the culmination of his Fellowship. THIS LECTURE WAS HELD ON 5 September, 2016 at the University of Sydney as part of the Sydney Ideas Lectures series. For more about Insights lecture series see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/ABR_professor_alan_atkinson.shtml

Professor Sabine Lee, the University of Birmingham. Starting from a drawing ‘Schattenkinder ‘ by the Dutch painter Knut Weise, whose half-sister is a Russenkind (child of Russian soldier fathered during or after Second World War in Germany) this paper explores the integration of children born of war into post-conflict societies by investigating children fathered by foreign soldiers in several conflicts spanning much of the 20th and 21st centuries: the Second World War, the Vietnam War, the Bosnian War and the sub-Saharan African conflicts. Using these case studies as anchors, the presentation will shine a light on the challenges faced by the children themselves and their mothers within their post-conflict receptor communities by looking at the development of experience over time and across different geographical regions. It contextualises historically the conflict and post-conflict policies towards children born of war and their families and discusses the consequences of such policies. In particular, it ana

For more than half a century, the fragile and frozen continent of Antarctica has been protected by ‘post-sovereign’ governing arrangements that are unusual by global standards. There are now clear signs of their breakdown. State rivalries, environmental damage and a dash for resources, including tourism revenues, are pushing the continent towards a highly uncertain future. This public forum tackles the pressing questions: What do scientists working in Antarctica have to teach us? Are military and commercial adventures becoming a reality and does Australia have a ‘national interest’ in the continent? What are the chances of reforming and strengthening the Antarctic Treaty System? Can citizens play a role in shaping its future?