Sydney Ideas

Historians these days probably get less sleep than anyone else – kept up by the echoes of the past in the radically shifting world political landscape. The historical allusions of contemporary governments in the US, and in Europe, are driving all manner of comparisons with the 1930s in particular, and the rise of Nazism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism. This panel brings together four University of Sydney academics who specialise in the political cultures of the last century, to discuss the relevance of the past, and these categories to the present. We consider Greece, Egypt, Europe and the US. If we can work out how different the present is from the past, hopefully we can all get some sleep! Speakers: - Professor Vrasidas Karalis, Sir Nicholas Laurantus Professor of Modern Greek, the University of Sydney - Professor Dirk Moses, Professor of Modern History, the University of Sydney - Dr Lucia Sorbera, Senior Lecturer, Department of Arabic Language and Cultures, the University of Sydney Held as part of Sydney Ideas' The Thinker’s Guide to the 21st Century series on 11 October 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/thinkers_guide_21st_century_2017.shtml

A Sydney Ideas talk by Dr Mark Stafford Smith, Chief Coordinating Scientist – Adaptation, CSIRO. Co-presented with the Planetary Health Initiative at the University of Sydney. Mark Stafford Smith from CSIRO Australia is chair of the Future Earth’s Science Committee, which aims to ensure that Future Earth science is of the highest quality and makes recommendations on new and existing projects, as well as emerging priorities for research. For his Sydney Ideas talk Mark addresses the theme of integration: of research disciplines, policy responses, knowledge systems, and means of implementation. This lecture was held on 10 October 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/mark_stafford_smith.shtml

Indonesia’s anti-corruption commission has investigated and prosecuted many big-fish corruption cases, and has secured many dozens of convictions, including very senior judges and politicians. This represents real progress; even a decade ago, many of the commission’s current targets would have been largely untouchable. However, the commission has faced serious resistance from those it has pursued and their associates. This resistance threatens to weaken the commission or even disband it, and to discredit its commissioners. This forum examines the future of corruption eradication efforts in Indonesia, bringing together three speakers Professor Todung Mulya Lubis, one of Indonesia’s leading lawyers and anti-corruption advocates; Dr Laode Syarif, Commissioner for Indonesia Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK); and Professor Simon Butt, who specialises in Indonesian law and its corruption courts. Held as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 10 October 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/fighting_corruption_indonesia_forum.shtml

In 2001, Stanford mathematician Dr Keith Devlin, also known as ‘The Math Guy’ on NPR’s Weekend Edition, set out to research the life and legacy of the thirteenth century mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, popularly known as Fibonacci. Leonardo introduced the Hindu-Arabic numeral system and arithmetic to the Western world, and thereby helped start a global, social and economic revolution. Devlin recounted Leonardo's story in a 2011 book titled The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci’s Arithmetic Revolution. In a simultaneously published companion e-book, Leonardo and Steve: The Young Genius Who Beat Apple to Market by 800 Years, he drew remarkable parallels between the careers of Leonardo and Apple’s Steve Jobs. His new book, Finding Fibonacci: The Quest to Rediscover the Forgotten Mathematical Genius Who Changed the World is a first-hand account of his experiences in uncovering the story, reconstructed from his project diary and notes, together with stories of three other contemporary scholars who were also motivated to find out about the long-forgotten medieval mathematician who did so much create the world we live in. This talk was held as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 3 October: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/keith_devlin.shtml

There are many accounts of consumer directed care (CDC )in England. Some focus on its ambitions, some on its achievements, some on its problems and some on its experiences. A series of 'myths' is being constructed around all four of these dimensions. Professor Jill Manthorpe from the Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King's College London, who has undertaken several studies of this subject over the past decade in both England and Scotland, tackles some of these myths and sets out a few mysteries for participants to solve. Held as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 28 September 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/ESW_deans_lecture_series.shtml

Is home a closed-off and self-sufficient place, or can it be reimagined to be where we find our connections to others and the world? By exploring home in relation to the figure of the stranger and public space, as well as with a focus on practices of dwelling and materialities, the authors of 'Reimagining Home in the 21st Century' demonstrate that thinking differently about home advances our understanding of belonging as a social process in which we are all implicated. SPEAKERS: - Associate Professor Ellie Vasta, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University - Dr Justine Lloyd, Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University - Professor Greg Noble, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University - Dr Justine Humphry, Lecturer in Digital Cultures, Digital Cultures Program, Department of Media and Communications, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences - Professor Heather Horst, Department of Media and Communications, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University of Sydney

As part of World Alzheimer’s Day, four dementia experts from the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre share the latest research breakthroughs on Alzheimer’s disease. Speakers: Dr Rebekah Ahmed, Staff Specialist Neurologist Memory and Cognition Clinic Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and NHMRC Early Career Fellow, Frontier Frontotemporal Dementia Research Group and Motor Neurone Disease Research Group at the Brain and Mind Centre Associate Professor John Kwok, Principal Research Fellow and Team Leader, Forefront Neurogenetics and Epigenetics Research Group at the Brain and Mind Centre Professor Sharon Naismith, Leonard P Ullman Chair in Psychology, University of Sydney, and Team Leader of the ForeFront Healthy Brain Ageing Program at Brain and Mind Centre. Hosted by Professor Jillian Kril Professor of Neuropathology, Disciplines of Medicine and Pathology, and Associate Dean (Research), Sydney Medical School. A Sydney Ideas event, co-presented with the Brain and Mind Centre, on 21 September 2017, http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/alzheimers_awareness_forum.shtml

‘Health hacks’ telling us how to stay young in mind and body are everywhere these days, but are they true? Can we trust their advice? In this health forum, our expert panel will highlight helpful insights that are changing people’s lives for the better, and teach us all how to best look after our minds and bodies as we age.

Paul Farrell (Buzzfeed Australia), Benedetta Brevini (Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media), Julie Posetti (journalist and academic) and Gabor Szathmari (CryptoAustralia co-founder) discuss the extent of data collection revealed by Edward Snowden’s 2013 intelligence leaks and the sharp acceleration of new national security and data retention legislation in Australia. A Sydney Ideas event on 22 August 2017 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/journalism_resistance_metadata_forum.shtml

'Gatekeeping' continues to be a rousing and provocative word with regard to Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations. Gatekeeping pertains to the various forms of apartheid in Australia, some of which still apply, if in a veiled and insidious way. But the term is also relevant to Aboriginal communities themselves, in which differing degrees of 'whiteness' and 'blackness' are consigned different values of entitlement and belonging. It is a taxonomy that tends to elide the deeper and more urgent issues that Indigenous cultures, in Australia and elsewhere, currently face. In the spirit of launching the journal co-founded by Professor Jakelin Troy and Dr Adam Geczy (who are the editors, with Lorena Sekwan Fontaine), of ab-Original (Penn State University Press), 'gatekeeping' is used as a relevant and ironic term for a journal whose key mission is to examine global indigenous cultures and their diverse transnational and pan-racial contexts. Joining Prof Jakelin Troy and Dr Adam Geczy in this discussion are Blak Douglas (aka Adam Hill), an artist, musician and social activist and Dr Mick Adams, Senior Research Fellow Australian Indigenous Health, at Edith Cowan University, WA. This forum was held as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 14 September, 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/gatekeeping_ab-0riginal_launch_forum.shtml