Sydney Ideas

From building walls, to stopping boats, to attempts to ‘trade’ refugees between countries, we are witnessing unprecedented efforts by national governments to externalise their borders, absolving rich countries of their international obligations, and often shifting the burden to poorer countries. Our panel will examine the current policies of the United States and Australia and offer observations about the implications of such policies – for those who cannot move, for those who remain unprotected, and for those who try to respond. The panel will be preceded by a photography exhibition featuring the work of Syrians living the ‘Trapped In/Pushed Out’ experience, curated by Maher Jamous, a Syrian producer and filmmaker who fled Syria in 2012. SPEAKERS: - Professor David FitzGerald, Professor of Sociology, University of California San Diego
 - Graham Thom, Refugee Coordinator, Amnesty International
 - Michelle Peterie, PhD candidate (Sociology), University of Sydney
 - Behrouz Boochani, journalist, currently in detention on Manus Island - Dr Omid Tofighian, Senior Project Officer, National Centre for Cultural Competence, University of Sydney
 Presented by Sydney Ideas on 12 April 2017 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/border_politics_US_Australia_forum.shtml

On September 14, 2015, scientists from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration observed the collision and fusion of the two black holes by directly measuring their gravitational waves. This detection came 100 years after Einstein developed the general theory of relativity that predicted gravitational waves, and 50 years after scientists began searching for them. This discovery has truly profound implications, and opens a new window on the cosmos. Gravitational waves provide unique information on the most energetic astrophysical events, revealing insights into the nature of gravity, matter, space, and time. David Reitze talks about how they made the detection and discusses how gravitational astronomy promises to change our understanding of the universe. SPEAKER: David Reitze, Executive Director of the LIGO Laboratory at the Caltech and a Professor of Physics at the University of Florida Presented by Sydney Ideas on 11 April 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/david_reitze.shtml

North Korea has survived the end of the Cold War, massive famine, numerous regional crises, punishing sanctions, and international stigma. Why is it still here? In this talk, Associate Professor Justin Hastings, of the University of Sydney, explores the puzzle of how the most politically isolated state in the world nonetheless sustains itself in large part by international trade and integration into the global economy. SPEAKER: Justin Hastings, Associate Professor in International Relations and Comparative Politics at the University of Sydney Presented by Sydney Ideas on 10 April 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/assoc_professor_justin_hastings.shtml

Sydneysiders have just sweltered through the hottest summer on record. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the mean summer temperature in the city was about three degrees above average. As Sydney’s population expands in the next few decades, how can we protect and promote health in this changing climate? What are the options for managing the heat, and how will this influence the choices we make in the future? PANELLISTS: - Dr Tony Capon, Professor of Planetary Health, Sydney School of Public Health, Researcher of Climate Adaptation & Health Project Node, Charles Perkins Centre - Dr Adrienne Keane, Director, Master of Urbanism, Urban Planning and Policy, Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning - Dr Ollie Jay, Thermoregulatory Physiologist and Director of Thermal Ergonomics Laboratory, Faculty of Health Sciences; Lead Researcher of Climate Adaptation & Health Project Node, Charles Perkins Centre - Dr Jennifer Mae Hamilton, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Gender and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Presented by Sydney Ideas on 6 April 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/hot_in_the_city.shtml

What has happened to the bipartisan consensus on the importance of protecting public health and the environment with environmental law in the United States? P Robert L Glicksman from the George Washington University Law School, updates us on what is happening in the US. SPEAKER: Professor Robert L Glicksman is the J B & Maurice C Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law at the George Washington University Law School, is an authority on environmental, natural resources, and administrative law. Presented by Sydney Ideas and the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law, Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney, on 4 April 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/professor_robert_glicksman.shtml

Professor George Sugai is a world leader in positive behaviour support (PBS), a behaviour management system used to understand what maintains an individual's challenging behaviour, and establishing goals for change. For this presentation he outlines how PBS is just one part of prevention-based multi-tiered systems approach that can be used to support the academic and social behavioural goals of schools. SPEAKER: Professor George Sugai, Center for Behavioral Education and Research Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut. Presented by Sydney Ideas for the University of Sydney School of Education and Social Work Dean's lecture series on 4 April 2017 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/ESW_deans_lecture_series.shtml

Dr Duncan Green of Oxfam joins Sydney Ideas to share the ideas in his latest book How Change Happens, exploring the topic of social and political change from the perspective of international development. SPEAKER: Dr Duncan Green is Oxfam Great Britain’s Senior Strategic Adviser. He teaches on international development at the London School of Economics, where he is a Professor in Practice. His blog is one of the most widely read on international development, From Poverty to Power blog (http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/). Presented by Sydney Ideas on 3 April 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/duncan_green.shtml

The Dawkins reforms to higher education in the late 1980s roused passions at many universities across the nation, over fears for the academic enterprise and Australia’s system of free, public university education. What was the impact of the Dawkins reforms, particularly at the University of Sydney? SPEAKERS: - Emeritus Professor Deryck Schreuder, 4th Challis Professor of History at The University of Sydney during the era of the Dawkins White Paper, and then Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Macquarie University, Vice-Chancellor of UWS and a Member of the new Australian Research Council, during its implementation. He was later Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia, President of the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee and Chair of the ‘Australian Universities Quality Agency’. He is now an Emeritus Professor and writes about history and higher education. - Julia Horne was a PhD student during the implementation of the Dawkins reforms. She is now Associate Professor of History and University Historian at the University of Sydney, and writes on Australian cultural and social history, and the history of higher education. - Stephen Garton was a newly-appointed lecturer in History at the University of Sydney when Dawkins announced his reforms. He is now Professor of History and Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sydney. Presented by Sydney Ideas on 29 Mar 2017 : http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/preserving_past_dawkins_forum.shtml

Corruption in the post-Tiananmen era exhibits distinct characteristics not found in the 1980s, such as astronomical sums of money looted by officials, their family members, and their cronies in the private sector, large networks of co-conspirators, and the sale of public office. By examining the evolution of Chinese economic and political institutions since the early 1990s, we can trace the emergence of crony capitalism to two critical changes in the control of property rights of the assets owned by the state and the personnel management of the officials the ruling Communist Party. The insights from a sample of 260 prosecuted cases of corruption involving multiple officials and businessmen suggest that crony capitalism in China has evolved into a decentralised kleptocracy with its own market rules and dynamics. SPEAKER: Professor Minxin Pei, Claremont McKenna College, US Presented by Sydney Ideas and the China Studies Centre on 29 Mar 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/professor_minxin_pei.shtml

Professor Pavel Pevzner from the University of California, San Diego, shares the concerns about the quality of early, primitive MOOCs, which have been hyped by many as a cure-all for education. At the same time, he believes that much of the criticism of MOOCs stems from the fact that truly disruptive educational resources have not been developed yet. He proposes to transform MOOCs into a more efficient educational product called a Massive Adaptive Interactive Text (MAIT) that can prevent individual learning breakdowns and even outperform a professor in a classroom. For this special Sydney Ideas event, Pevzner argues that computer science is a unique discipline where this transition is about to happen and describes the first steps towards transforming a MOOC into a MAIT that has already outperformed teachers. Introduction by Associate Professor Uri Keich, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney. A Sydney Ideas event on 23 March 2017 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/professor_pavel_pevzner.shtml