Experience Anu

Lock up your tubas and your fairy wrens! In partnership with ANU Meet The Authors series, Chat 10 Looks 3 comes to Canberra for a live recording of the beloved podcast's bumper Christmas episode. Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb discuss their favourite books, TV shows, movies and recipes from 2017. Make a list of what to read in your Christmas holidays! Note ideas for the perfect gifts! Crabb's rider includes a fully stocked bar and the removal of all pianos from the premises while Sales just wants to know if ANU is providing a driver.

Associate Professor Ben Penny discusses the significance of the Classical Chinese text 'Daodejing' ('Tao Te Ching'). Books that Changed Humanity is a book club with a difference. Each month, the ANU Humanities Research Centre hosts an expert from one of a variety of disciplines, who will introduce and lead the discussion of a major historical text. All of these texts, which are drawn from a variety of cultural traditions, has had a formative influence on society and humanity. The series aims to highlight and revisit those books which have informed the way we understand ourselves, both individually and collectively, as human beings. hrc.anu.edu.au/books-that-changed-humanity

In this podcast, Professor Ian McAllister, Dr Jill Sheppard and Sarah Cameron reveal the results of the latest Australian Election Study live from Parliament House. Spoiler: The 2016 survey shows significant changes of opinion that should act as a wake-up call to the major parties.

This talk gives an insiders account of Australia's national intelligence organisation as it grappled with continuing espionage from foreign agents and the rise of terrorist attacks on Australian soil during the years of the Fraser and Hawke governments. John Blaxland uncovers behind the scenes stories of the Hilton bombing in Sydney, assassinations of diplomats, the Combe-Ivanov affair, and the new threat from China. It reveals that KGB officers were able to recruit and run agents in Australia for many years, and it follows ASIO's own investigations into persistent allegations of penetration by Soviet moles.

Natural resources are the biggest source of unaccountable power in the world. For decades resource-fuelled authoritarians and extremists have forced endless crises on the West—and the ultimate source of their resource money is consumers, paying at the gas station and the mall. Leif Wenar explores how the ‘resource curse’ threatens the West—and searches for the hidden global rule that puts shoppers into business with today’s most dangerous men. He discovers the same rule that once licensed the slave trade and genocide and apartheid—a rule whose abolition has marked humanity’s greatest victories, yet that still breeds tyranny and war and extremism through today’s global resource trade. Australia could now abolish this archaic law for resources—and lead the world to lift its oil curse. Leif Wenar holds the Chair of Philosophy and Law at King’s College London. He has been a Visiting Professor at ANU, Stanford and Princeton, and a Fellow of the Carnegie Council Program in Justice and the World Economy.

Evolution was the theme of the fifth in the Conversations Across the Creek series. Our speakers tackled this subject from their differing research viewpoints: the philosophy of biology; phylogenetics and why some things evolve faster than others; the migration of people in the Pacific; and communication in healthcare. This session’s speakers were: Dr Rachael Brown (School of Philosophy; College of Arts and Social Sciences), Dr Rob Lanfear (Research School of Biology; College of Medicine, Biology and Environment), Dr Hilary Howes (School of Archaeology and Anthropology; College of Arts and Social Sciences), Professor Diana Slade (School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics; College of Arts and Social Sciences). The Conversations Across the Creek series is an initiative of the Humanities Research Centre and the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. ‘Conversations’ seeks to highlight the commonalities and interesting intersections that exist across the university through TED-style talks delivered by

The inaugural 2006 Last Lecture was given by Professor Chris Reus-Smit. Professor Reus-Smit delivered a fascinating lecture on the topic of 'Sources of Insecurity and Instability in the Contemporary World'. With a long teaching experience and exceptional rapport with students, it is no wonder so many students wanted to hear Professor Reus-Smit speak at the Last Lecture! He self-evidently loves teaching, and gives to his classes the same enthusiasm he has given to his many publications, including American Power and World Order (Polity Press) and the Oxford Handbook on International Relations. Despite his less than formal high school education, Chris’s intellect has been recognised. At ANU in 2006 he was a Professor, the Head of the Department of International Relations in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, and Deputy Director of RSPAS.

Books that Changed Humanity is a book club with a difference. Each month, the ANU Humanities Research Centre hosts an expert from one of a variety of disciplines, who will introduce and lead the discussion of a major historical text. All of these texts, which are drawn from a variety of cultural traditions, has had a formative influence on society and humanity. The series aims to highlight and revisit those books which have informed the way we understand ourselves, both individually and collectively, as human beings. Professor Iain McCalman gave the third lecture about On the Origin of Species. Prof. McCalman is professor of history and the humanities at the University of Sydney. http://hrc.anu.edu.au/events/books-changed-humanity-3-origin-species

ABC elections analyst, Antony Green, spoke at the ANU School of Politics and International Relations on 12 October 2016. In a lively and entertaining with students and staff, he discusses the findings of his analysis of the 2016 Senate Federal election and the implications of the Senate's new voting system. Placing these changes in their historical context, he finds that the new system has worked well and that some of the more surprising results were likely the result of the double dissolution rather than the reforms. Antony also discusses some possible future implications for the change

For the Northern Territory, 2016 is the year of two big anniversaries: the 50th anniversary of the Wave Hill walk-off and the 40th anniversary of the Commonwealth Parliament's passing the Northern Territory Aboriginal Land Rights Act. Next year will also mark the 10th anniversary of the Commonwealth's Northern Territory Emergency Response - the Intervention. What benefits have government policies delivered to Indigenous peoples over those decades? How would Nugget Coombs rate the quality of advice and programs that have emanated from government bureaucracies, NGOs and powerful individuals, as they have applied to Indigenous affairs? The passage of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act remains its acme. Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have been so distracted gaining, then defending, their rights that they simply have not secured their future. Developing the North is a hollow mantra without real inclusion of Indigenous peoples: the need for them to be consulted is ignored and self-management continu

Don Watson joins Professor Bates Gill in conversation to discuss his new Quarterly Essay, 'Enemy Within. American Politics in the Time of Trump' which takes the reader on a journey into the heart of the United States in the year 2016. Watson, with characteristic wit and acuity, places Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in a larger frame. He considers the irresistible pull - for Americans - of American exceptionalism, and asks whether this creed is reaching its limit. He explores alternative paths the United States could have taken, and asks where its present course might lead Australia as a dutiful ally. "The best book by an outsider about America since - forever," David Sedaris, on Don Watson's American Journeys. Don Watson is a historian, author and public speaker. After writing political satire for Max Gillies and speeches for the Victorian premier John Cain, he became Paul Keating's speechwriter in 1992 and wrote the award winning biography Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: Paul Keating P

'Albanese: Telling it Straight' is Karen Middleton's new biography of Anthony Albanese. Through interviews with more than 70 friends, relatives, colleagues, associates and adversaries, and more than 40 interviews with Albanese himself, respected political journalist Karen Middleton has gained unprecedented insight into the man behind the politician; a beloved son brought-up with a strong sense of social justice, a political activist with a firebrand reputation; a charismatic young leader; an independent thinker who antagonized both the soft-left and the right of his own party; a strategist with a remarkable memory and an uncanny knack for numbers. Middleton charts the trajectory of Albanese's political career detailing the student shenanigans and factional power-plays of his rise through Young Labor; the influence of his mentor, Tom Uren; the manoeuvring ahead of his preselection - and eventual election - as Member for Grayndler in Sydney's inner west; his years in Opposition, and finally, the role he played

Books that Changed Humanity is a book club with a difference. Each month, the ANU Humanities Research Centre hosts an expert from one of a variety of disciplines, who will introduce and lead the discussion of a major historical text. All of these texts, which are drawn from a variety of cultural traditions, has had a formative influence on society and humanity. The series aims to highlight and revisit those books which have informed the way we understand ourselves, both individually and collectively, as human beings. Dr Rick Kuhn gave the second lecture on ‘The Communist Manifesto.’ Dr Kuhn is an Honorary Associate Professor, Marxian economist and ANU Adjunct Reader in Sociology. http://hrc.anu.edu.au/events/books-changed-humanity-2-communist-manifesto

Acclaimed Indonesian writer and man of letters, Goenawan Mohamad joins ANU Emeritus Professor James Fox in conversation on Goenawan's new book, In Other Words, a volume of essays edited and translated by Jennifer Lindsay, who also participated in the conversation. In this podcast Jennifer discusses some challenges of selecting and translating Goenawan's essays, written between 1968 to 2014, which demonstrate the breadth of his perceptive and elegant commentary on literature, faith, mythology, politics, history and Indonesian life. Goenawan Mohamad has been at the forefront of Indonesian intellectual and cultural life since his early twenties, and a crusader for press freedom since his university days. He was founder of the Indonesian language weekly journal Tempo in 1971 and its chief editor from 1971-94, and again in 1998. In the last seventeen years, Goenawan has been particularly involved with establishing alternative spaces for cultural and intellectual activity in Jakarta, writing, and as theatre dir

Introduction by Boyd Hunter (PhB Convenor, CASS) Launching the 2016 PhB Symposium—Professor Brian Schmidt (Vice Chancellor, ANU) Ten PhB Student Presentations (in order) 1. Possibilities for innovative Native Title mapping—Mia Sandgren (PhB CASS) 2. How can playing ‘molecular Lego’ help us to understand the malaria parasite?—Lachlan Arthur (PhB Science) 3. Diagnosing Bottled Stars—Adrian Hindes (PhB Science) 4. Chemical Keyrings—Todd Harris (PhB Science) 5. Digital disruption in the academy—Oliver Friedmann (PhB CAP) 6. Writing Wrongs: Women and the Glass Ceiling of Literature—Rosalind Moran (PhB CASS) 7. Poking at Vibrations in Crystals—Kay Song (PhB Science) 8. Chemical weavings and coloured nets—Benjamin Thompson (PhB Science) 9. Gifted Underachievement: Causes and Interventions—Jessy Wu (PhB CASS) 10. Walt Whitman’s Civil War Poetry: Transcendentalism … or Jingoism?—Harry Dalton (PhB CASS)

In this discussion forum, four internationally recognised researchers will present their own research on different aspects of Australian biodiversity. They will look back at historical evidence to show how Australian plants and animals evolved and what factors have influenced them. By analysing the variety of animals and plants in Australia today, the researchers will propose ways they can be managed, protected and used effectively. The presenters then come together in a panel moderated by Dr Rod Lamberts (Deputy Director of the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science) to discuss the future of Australia's biodiversity and what factors, including climate change, are likely to influence it. Researchers Dr Marcel Cardillo, ANU Research School of Biology Professor Craig Moritz, Centre for Biodiversity Analysis, ANU Research School of Biology Dr Carsten Kulheim, ANU Research School of Biology Professor Adrienne Nicotra, ANU Research School of Biology

Bestselling American author Justin Cronin - in his only Canberra appearance between the Melbourne and Brisbane Writers Festival - discusses his life and books with Colin Steele, particularly his recently completed post-apocalyptic Passage trilogy. The Weekend Australian has commented that the trilogy,The Passage (2010), The Twelve(2012) and The City of Mirrors (2016), is "part dystopian essay, FBI procedural, vampire saga and military novel. There are echoes of John Steinbeck, Cormac McCarthy, Bram Stoker, Tom Clancy and Stephen King". King himself has commented that the trilogy "is remarkable for the unremitting drive of its narrative, for the breathtaking sweep of its imagined future, and for the clear lucidity of its language". Film rights have been sold to Ridley Scott. Harvard educated Cronin is also the author of Mary and O'Neil (which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize), and The Summer Guest. He has been a Fellow of the US National Endowment for the Arts and is a Distinguished Fa

Peter is joined in conversation by Jack Waterford AM, former Editor-at-large at The Canberra Times to discuss his new book Hack in a Flak Jacket. Hack in a Flak Jacket is a startlingly honest account of experiencing war and terrorism from the frontline by Peter Stefanovic, one of Australia's leading journalists and foreign correspondents. For almost ten years Peter Stefanovic was Channel 9's foreign correspondent in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. During that time he witnessed more than his fair share of death and destruction - all while putting his own personal safety very much in the firing line. This is his memoir of those experiences - from wars and conflicts in the Middle East, to terrorist attacks in London and Norway through to royal weddings. His time spent covering these world events has opened his eyes to the human condition - and in many ways affected him personally. Peter Stefanovic was the Europe, Africa, and Middle East correspondent for the Nine Network, from 2008 to 2015. He reported fr

The fourth in the Conversations Across the Creek series was a lively discussion about ethical issues with various technologies such as drones used in warfare, Artificial Intelligence, the benefits and concerns with police body cameras, and machine learning. This session’s speakers were: Dr Adam Henschke (National Security College; College of Asia & Pacific), Professor Marcus Hutter (Research School of Computer Science), Dr Emmeline Taylor (School of Sociology; College of Arts and Social Sciences), Associate Professor Lexing Xie (Research School of Computer Science). The Conversations Across the Creek series is an initiative of the Humanities Research Centre and the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. ‘Conversations’ seeks to highlight the commonalities and interesting intersections that exist across the university through TED-style talks delivered by academics from both sides of Sullivan’s Creek.

Books that Changed Humanity is a book club with a difference. Each month, the ANU Humanities Research Centre hosts an expert from one of a variety of disciplines, who will introduce and lead the discussion of a major historical text. All of these texts, which are drawn from a variety of cultural traditions, has had a formative influence on society and humanity. The series aims to highlight and revisit those books which have informed the way we understand ourselves, both individually and collectively, as human beings. Dr McComas Taylor gave the inaugural lecture on The Ramayana, the Indian epic. Dr Taylor is a Reader in Sanskrit in the ANU College of Asia & the Pacific. http://hrc.anu.edu.au/books-that-changed-humanity