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

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

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

A Sydney Ideas conversation co-presented with the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship A serial entrepreneur, Ryan Holmes started his first business in high school, ultimately opening a string of ventures - from a pizza restaurant to a digital media agency – before starting Hootsuite in 2008. As founder and CEO, he has helped grow Hootsuite into the world’s most widely used social relationship platform, with 15-million-plus users, including more than 800 of the Fortune 1000 companies. Ryan Holmes is in discussion with Nick Kaye, Chief Executive Officer, Sydney School of Entrepreneurship. Presented by Sydney Ideas on 23 March 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/ryan_holmes.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

As Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network from 2008 to 2011, Wadah Khanfar was in a unique position to observe war, uprisings and revolution in one of the most turbulent regions in the world, the Middle East. He is now President of Al Sharq Forum, an independent think-tank dedicated to developing long-term strategies for political development, social justice and economic prosperity of the people of the Middle East. Wadah Khanfar joins Sydney Ideas for a conversation about the rapidly evolving nature of our news consumption, its relationship to the complex world of political strategy and diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa, and the complexities of identity and representation in this situation. Response by Zainab Jasim, PhD student at the University of Sydney, researching aspects of Al-Jazeera's coverage of the Arab Spring. Co-presented by the Department of Arabic Language and Cultures and the National Centre for Cultural Competence at the University of Sydney Presented by Sydney Ideas on 16 March 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/wadah_khanfar.shtml

Professor Stuart Kauffman is one of the most distinguished scholars of complexity and the author of several acclaimed books, including The Origins of Order: Self Organization and Selection in Evolution (1993), At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity (1995), and Humanity in a Creative Universe (2016). In this Sydney Ideas talk, he proposes that the ever-changing phase space of evolution means we can write no laws of motion for evolution, and it is thus not reducible to physics. The evolving biosphere is the most complex system we know in the universe. Presented by Sydney Ideas on 1 March 2017. See the webpage for more about this lecture and to access the lecture slides: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/professor_stuart_kauffman.shtml

A panel presents fresh perspectives on museums approaches to human rights and the Holocaust, exploring and explicating contemporary international debates. Experts from various disciplinary backgrounds alongside museum practitioners analyse, challenge, and critically assess existing approaches, while considering possible future directions for these increasingly influential institutions. For while human rights museums with a Holocaust core or theme proliferate internationally, this burgeoning area of museology has not yet been subject to systematic scholarly study. By comparing and contrasting the unique combination of advocacy (human rights) with memory (the Holocaust), the ARC Linkage project Reverberations: The Holocaust, Human Rights and the Museum is setting the agenda for theory, practice, and policy with regard to human rights and Holocaust museums in the 21st century. Chaired by Dr Avril Alba, a Senior Lecturer in Holocaust Studies and Jewish Civilisation, and Director (Acting) of the Museums and Heritage Program, University of Sydney. SPEAKERS: - Associate Professor Jennifer Barrett publishes on museums, culture, art, and the public sphere. - Ms Tali Nates, Founder and Director of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, South Africa. - Associate Professor Adam Muller, Department of English, Film, and Theatre at the University of Manitoba, studies the representation of genocide, atrocity and mass violence. - Professor Jennifer Carter, Director of the graduate museology programs at the Université du Québec à Montréal, where she is also professor of new museologies, intangible heritage and cultural objects in the Department of Art History. Presented by Sydney Ideas on 28 Feb 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/reverberations_holocaust_humanrights_museums_forum.shtml

International insights on achieving affordability with quality density. Real estate development expert Professor Richard Peiser at Harvard University and guests of the Cities Leadership Institute at the University of Sydney, spoke on how to achieve quality, affordable housing drawing on case studies and strategies from the United States. They discussed ways that we can better finance loans for key workers in affordable housing, new tenure strategies, and trends in commercial and residential real estate. Professor Peiser also suggests how we can better integrate jobs and transport into the delivery process of and international best practices of density and accessibility. Presented by Sydney Ideas on 23 Feb 2017 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/professor_richard_peiser.shtml

How do theatre plays, such as The Trouble with Harry contribute to advancing contemporary transgender issues? A post-performance Q&A co-presented with the Seymour Centre as part of the 2017 Mardi Gras. The playwright Lachlan Philpott is joined by the University of Sydney PhD candidate Rillark Bolton whose research explores the experiences of identity formation and community creation for trans masculine individuals, and Dr Anna Hickey-Moody, Associate Professor in Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. Together they discuss the history of transgender (the term that did not yet exist in the time of Harry Crawford), the politics of the play and the role of the performing arts in shaping contemporary thought and opinion on trans issues. The discussion is chaired by Charles O'Grady. Presented by Sydney Ideas on 23 February 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/transgender_forum.shtml