One of America’s leading political scientists, Peter Katzenstein, is particularly interested in the relevance of cultural categories for the analysis of world politics. In his lecture for Sydney Ideas he offered a critique of the Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilization theory that conflict between distinct groups based on religion and cultural identities (eg Western, Islamic, Sinic) is inevitable, and will dominate in the post cold–war period. The emphasis on the unity and uniformity of different civilizations and hence on sharp differences among civilizations is misguided. Civilizations are better thought of in pluralist rather than unitary terms. Civilizations are unique in important respects, but equally they are embedded in a global context of interactions with other civilizations that influence them without robbing each of its distinctiveness. Instead of focusing on the clash of civilizations, we should concentrate on studying encounters and engagements among civilizations that shape their futures as much as their unique foundations do. This is the right lesson to draw from approaches as distinct as American liberalism and Chinese Confucianism. A Sydney Ideas event on 25 March, 2010 sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2010/professor_peter_katzenstein.shtml

Loretta Napoleoni is an expert on financing of terrorism and advises governments and international organization on counter-terrorism. In her lecture for Sydney Ideas she outlines how the response of George Bush to 9/11 triggered a chain of events which led to the credit crunch and to the current crisis of the Euro. A Sydney Ideas event on 30 August, 2010 sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2010/loretta_napoleoni.shtml

Professor Esther M Sternberg MD and Professor Ian Hickie AM How do the emotions affect our physical and mental health? What is the science that shows how brain and body interact to make us sick or well? Two of the world’s leading researchers exposed and explored the pathways within the brain through which our emotions connect with our bodies. Professor Sternberg presented the results of her decades of research showing how nerves, molecules, and hormones connect the brain and immune system, how the immune system signals the brain and affects our emotions, and how our brain can signal the immune system, making us more vulnerable to illnesses. She illustrated how these links work and discussed what the implications can be for treatable and chronic diseases. Professor Hickie discussed studies conducted by the Brain and Mind Research Institute that indicate the role the emotions play in the developing adolescent brain and identify, which factors are likely to lead to serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, and the ways in which early interventions might be used to prevent and treat these diseases. A Sydney Ideas event on 14 October, 2010 sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2010/professor_esther_sternberg.shtml

Michael Oppenheimer was the Lead Author on the Third and Fourth Assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His scientific understanding of global warming provides a framework for developing response policies at the local, national and international levels. Oppenheimer reviews this evidence in order to present a framework for policies to mitigate emissions and adapt to some level of inevitable warming. He also discuss changes in the relations among nations in the climate arena which were evident at Copenhagen and recent developments related to the public communication of the science of climate change. A Sydney Ideas event on 23 Feb, 2010 : http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2010/professor_michael_oppenheimer.shtml

Paul Gilding argues that we have entered a period of global ecological crisis and economic stagnation that will last for decades. This will lead to an economic and social transformation of significance in the history of humanity. Paul Gilding has been an activist and social entrepreneur for 35 years, his personal mission is to lead, inspire and motivate action globally on the transition of society and the economy to sustainability. A Sydney Ideas talk on 29 April, 2009 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2009/great_disruption.shtml

Maude Barlow is a Canadian activist and author who travels the world telling a simple and compelling truth: we are running out of water. And with that, comes devastating consequences. The author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right of Water explains the phenomena of “hot stains”, where large areas of the earth’s surface are running out of clean, drinkable water and describes this as “the most important ecological and human threat of our time.” Barlow is informed and passionate and gives a frank assessment of the state of water in Australia. “You have a right to be really angry with your governments,” she says. “What we’re looking at here are years and years of mismanagement, collusion with corporate and special interest organisations and industries, ignoring scientific, environmental warnings that were crystal clear at the time when some of these crises could have averted much more easily.” A Sydney Ideas talk on 3 September, 2008 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2008/blue_covenant.shtml

Environmental laws as presently conceived are incapable of addressing the fundamental challenges of the 21st Century such as climate change and the degradation of ecosystems. Cormac Cullinan makes the the case for an eco-centric approach to law and governance and explore the potential of Earth Jurisprudence and wild law to radically reshape law and society as we know it. He explores the implications of the rapidly emerging global movement for the rights of nature and the potential to use Earth rights as a platform for building the global solidarity necessary to bring about the rapid and far reaching cultural change necessary to ensure a viable future for all. Cormac Cullinan is an author, practising environmental attorney and governance expert based in South Africa. His groundbreaking book Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice, has played a significant role in informing and inspiring a growing international movement to recognise rights for nature A Sydney Ideas event on 23 September, 2011 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2011/professor_cormac_cullinan.shtml

The Mexican Revolution (1910–20) gave birth to a radical regime which, during the 1920s and 1930s, innovated in terms of state-building, social reform, and cultural policy, thus becoming a magnet for foreign journalists and intellectual tourists. But while American cultural commentators (John Reed, Frank Tannenbaum, Carleton Beals and others) were often sympathetic, the British – D H Lawrence, Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, and Malcolm Lowry – were highly critical. This talk by Professor Emeritus Alan Knight (University of Oxford) focuses on the British, asking why they were so negative, what they objected to, and what they tell us about the Mexican revolutionary project – or about themselves, and the interwar British society to which they belonged. More info: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_alan_knight.shtml

Ordinary atoms that make up the visible universe, from the smallest molecules to planets and stars, constitute only 5% of all matter and energy in the cosmos. The remaining 95% is invisible, and comprises two mysterious components commonly dubbed dark matter and dark energy. In this talk Professor Manfred Lindner (Director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics and a professor at the faculty for physics and astronomy of Heidelberg University, Germany) reviews what we currently know about the 'dark side' of the universe, and discuss the state-of-the-art of the ongoing hunt for the dark matter being pursued in underground laboratories, using satellites in space, and at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. More info:http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_manfred_lindner.shtml

Professor Rajesh Thakker FRS FMedSci from the University of Oxford delivers a lecture in the 21st Century Medicine series of public lectures.