Sydney Ideas

This forum brings together two esteemed investigative journalists from overseas, Anna Nemtsova from Russia and Madhu Trehan from India, with Australian journalist Tom Dusevic and former NSW Premier Bob Carr. It will be moderated by David Marr, widely regarded as one of the country’s most influential commentators. Co-presented with the Australian Press Council as keynote event in the Press Council’s 40th Anniversary International Conference.

"Not too hot, not too cold" reads the prescription for a world that's just right for life as we know it. Finding evidence of life beyond Earth is one of the primary goals of science agencies around the world. The goal looms closer as a result of discoveries made by NASA's Kepler Mission. Find out more from Dr Natalie Batalha, NASA Ames Research Center and the Mission Scientist for NASA's Kepler Mission, as she describes the latest discoveries and the possibilities for finding inhabited environments in the not-so-distant future. This lecture took place at the University of Sydney as part of the 2016 Professor Walter Stibbs Lecture, an annual lecture by a distinguished astronomer of international standing. A Sydney Ideas co-presentation http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/dr_natalie_batalha.shtml

There is now almost universal recognition around the world that 'teaching matters' and that the quality of teaching is crucial in social and economic development. However, there has been remarkably little change in the ways in which teachers' work is constructed and the ways in which teachers are educated for a lifetime of preparing young people for their future worlds. In this talk Ian Menter reflects on debates about the nature of teaching and teacher education in order to challenge much of the dominant thinking, suggesting that such thinking is often driven by ideology and prejudice rather than by careful deliberation or by the use of research evidence. His conclusion is that there are important underlying values that can be traced through the history of teaching which may now be more important than ever, but that the ways in which these values are embodied in the work of contemporary teachers are in need of major reconsideration. This lecture was a part of the University of Sydney's Faculty of Educati

Ugandan human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo and Human Rights Watch Senior Africa Researcher Maria Burnett examine Uganda’s failure to make progress on human rights issues, and discuss what can be done to ensure its citizens can freely exercise fundamental human rights. Hosted by Dr Susan Banki, lecturer in human rights at the University of Sydney.

As the United States teeters under the weight of Trumpism while inequalities of race, class, gender, and nativity inspire protests and political organising, it has become increasingly common to harken back to the political divisions of the 1960s. This roundtable panel will explore the usefulness of the ‘1960s’ as a point of comparison for contemporary politics and culture not just in the U.S. but around the world in locales like Brazil and Greece. What has changed in the way we think about the 1960s as scholarship on the decade has passed from those who participated in its upheavals to those who study it as scholarly project? Is the ‘1960s’ a coherent category of historical time and analysis? If so, are the inequalities, oppressions, and counter-revolutions of the contemporary world producing a ‘new 1960s?’. The four panellists, all historians of American social movements who teach outside of the United States, will offer diverse answers to these questions while placing the idea of the 1960s in the contemp

Discover how Harvard University Professor Joanna Aizenberg’s research is inspired by biology to design slippery surfaces that mimic those found in nature. Her novel nanostructured materials will have huge impacts in areas as diverse as medicine, construction, shipping industries, aircraft industries, fluid handling and transportation, and optical sensing. Inspired by the slippery surfaces of a pitcher plant, Professor Aizenberg and team have invented new technology to create self-healing, anti-fouling materials, called Slippery, Lubricant-Infused Porous Surfaces, or SLIPS. These novel nanostructured materials outperform state-of-the-art materials in their ability to resist ice and microbes sticking to surfaces, repel various simple and complex liquids, prevent marine fouling, or reduce drag. This lecture took place at the University of Sydney in celebration of the launch of the Australian Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at the University of Sydney, which is discovering and harnessing new scie

Insight into how local councils are educating communities about climate change, even when they are pressured to avoid using the term. SPEAKERS: Lisette Collins, PhD Candidate, University of Sydney Maria Taylor, journalist and author

Professor Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science In earlier modernity the infrastructures of communication required for an expanding economy and society remained tied to national boundaries and broadly compatible with the values on which democracy was based. In late modernity, globalisation challenged nation-state boundaries, but not yet the values underlying democratic governance. But the era of late late modernity - characterised by the embedding of internet-based connectivity into action at all levels and scales - creates conditions incompatible with freedom, a value generally regarded as essential to the quality of human life, and democratic capabilities in particular. The internet involves the connectability of all points in space-time, which become points in an unlimited information-space. This generates a two-way bargain: if every point in information-space is connectable to every other, then it becomes susceptible to monitoring from every other point. Meanwhile, the resulti

Professor Kathy High, Video and New Media in the Department of the Arts, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY Recent research into the human body biomes and fecal microbial transplants (FMT) has led to better understanding of both the important function of bacteria in our bodies and the ecological systems that sustain us. These include microbiota – ecologies within the body. Kathy High an interdisciplinary artist working in the areas of technology, science and art, explores these new developments through metaphors of interspecies love, immunology and bacteria as players. Waste Matters expands ideas around imbalances of internal biomes as a mirror to the imbalances in our larger ecological sphere, where the gut is a ‘hackable space’. 12 April 2016. Sydney Ideas event: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_kathy_high.shtml

Professor Yu Keping from Peking University, Beijing elaborates on the meaning of political philosophy and political thought in the Chinese context, traditionally and currently. He highlights the distinction between legitimate authority and legal power, and the ways by which power is transformed into authority. Professor Yu looks specifically at the sources and nature of power and authority, and gives his answer to the question of what kind of power and authority we need in terms of modern democratic governance.

China is a rising power in the world. Its grand strategy, regional role and foreign policy have significant impacts on global and regional affairs, and have important implications for countries such as the United States and Australia. Australia faces the challenges of balancing its relationships with both the United States and China in a sometimes volatile regional security environment, exemplified by the South China Sea disputes. How do the Chinese perceive their role and key relationships with global and regional powers? The University of Sydney brings together prominent Chinese scholars and Australian scholars to engage in open, extensive and in-depth conversations.

Without stories there is silence. Without stories told, we are voiceless. Without our stories heard, we are invisible. The topic of violence against women with disability is only now entering the conversation on gender-based violence. Recognition that violence does happen to women with disabilities and that violence causes disability is the first step in creating environments of social and economic sustainability for all women who are impacted by violence. Their lived experience is multi-faceted and formed at the intersections of their identity, gender and culture, making gender based violence difficult to resolve unless a holistic approach is undertaken. In this panel discussion we hear directly from some of the women with disability who have experienced violence and look at an inclusive and holistic approach that recognises diversity.

Aristotle (384-322 BC), together with his teacher Plato, is one of the most widely recognised and studied philosophers of all times. His work established the fundamental traditions of rationalism and scientific logic. It is also a bridge that links ancient paganism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam and many modern philosophical, political and religious movements. In this lecture, Professor Vrasidas Karalis, offers a brief presentation of Aristotle's life, work and thought, focusing on his political and ethical ideas. It will attempt an evaluation of his continuing significance in the context of contemporary cultural pluralism and philosophical diversity.

The growth in foundations and philanthropic giving in Australia draws on a rich tradition in American culture. Two of America's leading voices on philanthropic giving discuss the effective philanthropy. Stephen Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund addresses the question of philanthropy’s responsibility to communities and to society. Philanthropy, he says, cannot rely simply on the presumption that it will always automatically be seen as inherently good, but must think about the broader consequences of its decisions and actions. Bradford K. Smith, the president of the Foundation Center of New York details the past, current and future trends and organizations involved in US foundation giving in Australia. He demonstrates the values of openness and availability of philanthropic data for advancing the social sector through more effective philanthropy.

Assoc Professor Abbas El-Zein, School of Civil Engineering, University of Sydney and Tayanah O’Donnell, University of Canberra discuss the complexities associated with rising sea levels and the decision-making being made at a municipal level.

The idea of “East” and “West” as immutable and irreconcilable cultures, geographies and civilisations has been around for a long while. It has been used in various guises to imagine a “Middle East” that is the antithesis of – and inferior to – the “West” in values, practices and ideas. Arab migration to the “West” profoundly undermines this persistent argument, and the peregrinations of millions of Arab migrants lays bare its inherent contradictions. This talk by Professor Akram Khater (Director of the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, North Carolina State University) explores how Arab migration to the US shaped both the Middle East and the US, and tied them together inexorably through the movement of people, ideas and commodities over the past 150 years.

Recent protest movements in Europe and the Middle East have called for a greater political voice, a more equitable economy, and greater social justice. Yet five years after the mass mobilisation of the 'Arab Uprisings' and of Europe's anti-austerity movements, the message of these protests seem to have fallen on deaf ears. The Middle East has seen a powerful wave of counter-revolution sweep the region. In Europe political elites have attempted to prevent new leftist movements from achieving power while the political landscape has drifted slowly but surely to the xenophobic right. This panel considers the response of Europe and the Middle East to the opportunities for democratic transformation afforded by the 2010-15 wave of protests, why those opportunities were missed, and what can be done to address the underlying tensions in these societies. For more info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/europe_and_arab_uprisings.shtml

Guided by experimental tests of theory and practice, science and engineering have advanced rapidly in the past 500 years. Guided primarily by tradition and dogma, science education meanwhile has remained largely medieval. Research on how people learn is now revealing much more effective ways to teach, learn, and evaluate learning than what is in use in the traditional science class. SPEAKER: Professor Carl Wieman holds a joint appointment as Professor of Physics and of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. He has done extensive experimental research in both atomic physics and science education at the university level. Wieman has received numerous awards recognizing his work in atomic physics, including the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001 for the first creation of a Bose-Einstein condensate. He served as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House in 2010-12. More info: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_carl_weima

China sees itself as a victim of imperialism and colonialism. The modern Chinese nationalism, including the one adopted and promoted by the Chinese Communist Party, is defined through this. International scholarship on China often takes this narrative of China as anti-imperialist for granted. Professor Dibyesh Anand (University of Westminster, London) interrogates this narrative and argues that there is a fundamental disjuncture at the heart of the modern nation-state project in China. For more info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/assoc_professor_dibyesh_anand.shtml

Professor Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University In public health terms soft-drinks, called soda in the US, are low-hanging fruit. Containing little more than sugars and water, and increasing linked to obesity and other health problems, they are an easy target for health advocacy. In the US sodas have enabled their makers, primarily Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, to become multibillion dollar, international industries. Health advocates, however, have found many ways to counter the relentless marketing and political pressures. As a result, soda sales are falling, at least in the United States and Mexico. Lessons learned from soda advocacy are applicable to advocacy for additional aspects of the movement toward healthier and more sustainable food systems. For further information and speaker's biography see this page http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_marion_nestle.shtml