Sydney Ideas

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have historically been subject to much more misdiagnosis, mistreatment, incarceration and coercion than other Australians in the hands of psychiatric institutions, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. The ramifications of psychiatry’s sometimes unwitting, indifferent or knowing complicity in past harmful practices and beliefs have been far-reaching. They extend from the health and well-being of the individual patient, to human rights and social justice concerns that prevail in contemporary Australian society. How do we come to grips with the past, and how do we do so in just ways? What are the responsibilities of psychiatry to ensure a contribution to improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional health and well-being? What can apology and other forms of recognition achieve? What can we learn from other projects of apology and recognition? A panel discussion held as part of Sydney Ideas on 7 March 2018: https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/sydney-ideas/2018/working-the-past-aboriginal-australia-and-psychiatry.html

We’ve just legalised same-sex marriage, but where does the rest of the world stand? Bronwyn Winter and Maxime Forest explore the ways in which same-sex marriage becomes institutionalised (or resisted) through legal and societal norms and practices. Held as part of Sydney Ideas on 5 March 2018: https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/sydney-ideas/2018/same-sex-marriage-and-the-state-global-perspectives.html

Professor Sylvie Poirier reflects on her trajectory of engagement and collaborative research with the Atikamekw First Nation (north-central Quebec, Canada). In 1990, when the Council of the Atikamekw Nation first approached Professor Poirier to conduct research work on land rights issues, they agreed that her anthropological expertise would serve their life projects. Since then, Professor Poirier’s engagement with them has been manifold. Early on, as an “expert” anthropologist within the arduous process of land claims negotiations, she documented the “anthropological proof” of their ancestral relationships to the land claimed. In the early 2000s, her anthropological expertise and research funds were further utilised for exploring contemporary ways to document, valorise and transmit their knowledge systems to younger generations. In this Sydney Ideas lecture she discusses collaborative research as an ongoing process of learning, exchange, and decolonization for the anthropologist and the Indigenous people. Held as part of Sydney Ideas on 14 February 2018: https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/sydney-ideas/2018/engaged-anthropology--collaborative-research-and-the-atikamekw-f.html

Professor Roger Saljo, University of Gothenburg, argues that learning as we know it is currently changing in nature from its traditional focus on reproduction to a focus on learning as design. The purpose of education is to contribute to reproducing the knowledge and skills that are relevant for a society. In traditional societies with a low division of labour this implies focussing on reproducing knowledge that is stable and well known. In societies undergoing rapid change, due to factors such as digitalisation, globalisation and an increasing knowledge production, the situation will be different. Education and instruction – from preschool to university – can no longer be modelled solely on what is known but has to be forward looking and based on visions of a largely unknown future. Held as part of Sydney Ideas 'Education and Social Work Dean’s Lecture Series' on 14 February 2018 https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/sydney-ideas/2018/education-and-social-work-deans-lecture-series.html

What if getting old didn’t mean getting ill? Although we're living longer in most parts of the world, advancing age has been revealed as the major risk factor for serious diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia. Professor Dame Linda Partridge FRS is Director of the Institute of Healthy Ageing at University College London, and a founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany looks into the potential for intervening in the ageing process. Held as part of Sydney Ideas on 13 Feb 2018: https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/sydney-ideas/2018/is-there-a-cure-for-ageing-.html

What is the position of the translator as cultural mediator? A panel of distinguished scholars explore the significance of translation, its impact on encounters between people, and its contribution to social cohesion, especially in multicultural and multi-faith societies like Australia.

A forum with Tim Wright, Asia-Pacific director of ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its part in spearheading the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; the first Treaty to outlaw the development, stockpiling, possession, transfer, hosting, testing, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. He is joined by Tim Ayres, the National Research Coordinator of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union; and Tara Gutman, the Acting National Manager, International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Advocacy at Australian Red Cross. Together they discuss the work that still needs to be done and the vital role of the peace and humanitarian movements in Australia. Held on 30 November 2017 as part of the Sydney Ideas program co-presented with the School of Social and Political Sciences, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the Evatt Foundation and the Council for Peace and Justice: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/nuclear_weapons_forum.shtml

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist, writing opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper Haaretz often focusing on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In 2004, Levy published a compilation of articles entitled Twilight Zone – Life and Death under the Israeli Occupation(2004). His weekly talk show, A Personal meeting with Gideon Levy, was broadcast on Israeli cable TV. Levy defines himself as a "patriotic Israeli". He criticises what he sees as Israeli society's moral blindness to the effects of its acts of war and occupation. He has referred to the construction of settlements on private Palestinian land as "the most criminal enterprise in [Israel's] history". Response by Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist and author of My Israel Question, The Blogging Revolution and Disaster Capitalism: Making A Killing Out Of Catastrophe. Chaired by Professor Dirk Moses, Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Held as part of Sydney Ideas on 29 November 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/gideon_levy.shtml

The way Pompeii was covered by the eruption material ejected by Mt Vesuvius in 79 CE has made it possible to reveal the forms of organic remains preserved in the hardened ash. Pouring plaster of Paris into the voids created by decomposed soft tissue has created casts that were believed to be faithful renditions of those who died. In theory, the skeletons were embedded within the plaster casts of human victims and those of other mammals. In 2015, Estelle Lazer and her team of experts commenced a project to CT scan and X-ray the casts of the Pompeian victims. The initial results of the CT scans and X-rays were surprising as they revealed that the actual production methods for the casts were quite different to the procedures that had been minimally documented in the 19th and 20th centuries. This year, the University of Sydney and the Superintendency of the Pompeii Archaeological Park signed a Memorandum of Agreement, which makes the two institutions partners in this important project. In June 2017, permission was granted for the first time to transport plaster casts of victims from the site to the nearby local hospital for scanning in a state-of-the-art CT scanner that provided much higher resolution than the machine employed in the 2015 study. The results of this season are providing us with new insights into the lives and deaths of these victims, as well as a better understanding of how the casts were achieved. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr Estelle Lazer, author of Resurrecting Pompeii (2009), is an archaeologist best known for her work on the human remains from Pompeii. In 2015, she was appointed as a consultant for the Pompeii Cast Restoration Project. Estelle works for Academy Travel and is an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney. This lecture was held as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 28 November: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/dr_estelle_lazer.shtml

The makers of Venezuela's leading satirical news site El Chigüire Bipolar discuss the politics of satire with the makers of Australia’s in no way leading satirical news site The Chaser. Held as part of Sydney Ideas on 28 November 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/chaser_el_chiguir_bipolar.shtml