Sydney Ideas

It is now well established that digital media has given rise to new forms of political speech. Just as importantly though, the new media environment has also created space for new types of listening. Media scholar Dave Karpf discusses the role that digital listening, measurement, and experimentation play in shaping the contours of ‘analytic activism’. More info: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/david_karpf.shtml

A look into how bottles are impacting on tap water provision and the implications of accumulating plastic waste on environments and bodies. SPEAKERS: Professor Gay Hawkins, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University; Assoc Professor Kane Race, Gender and Cultural Studies, the University of Sydney; and Kylie Yeend, Education, Engagement and Partnerships Manager at Sydney Water.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, dominated by President Erdogan, has governed Turkey for more than a decade. Its initial democratisation agenda, however, has taken an authoritarian turn - with minimal tolerance for dissent. The lecture by Professor Umut Azak (Okan University, Istanbul) investigates the shifts in state-Islam relations within the context of a shrinking pluralist democracy in Turkey and the broader Middle East. The AKP’s state-led Islamisation and commitment towards creating a ‘devout generation’ are examined by locating the institutionalisation of ‘state Islam’ within the foundations established by the secular Kemalist Republic. More info: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_umut_azak.shtml

Did you know that at the height of 2015 forest fires, Indonesia was emitting more carbon than the entire US economy? Kiki Taufik, the Global Head of Greenpeace’s Indonesian Forests Campaign outlines why protecting Indonesia's forests is critical to global efforts to stabilise the climate and preserve biodiversity. He analyses recent developments concerning Indonesia's forests, the creation of a new agency to protect peatland, the work of the anti-corruption commission, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s recent bans on new forest clearance and mining. Co-presented with the Sydney Environment Institute in association with Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

Leading theatrical designers Michael Scott-Mitchell and Nick Schlieper join Associate Professor Branka Spehar, who specialises in the psychology of visual perception, to present a panel discussion about light and colour effects and their implications for performance, architecture and visual perception.

This forum brings together two esteemed investigative journalists from overseas, Anna Nemtsova from Russia and Madhu Trehan from India, with Australian journalist Tom Dusevic and former NSW Premier Bob Carr. It will be moderated by David Marr, widely regarded as one of the country’s most influential commentators. Co-presented with the Australian Press Council as keynote event in the Press Council’s 40th Anniversary International Conference.

"Not too hot, not too cold" reads the prescription for a world that's just right for life as we know it. Finding evidence of life beyond Earth is one of the primary goals of science agencies around the world. The goal looms closer as a result of discoveries made by NASA's Kepler Mission. Find out more from Dr Natalie Batalha, NASA Ames Research Center and the Mission Scientist for NASA's Kepler Mission, as she describes the latest discoveries and the possibilities for finding inhabited environments in the not-so-distant future. This lecture took place at the University of Sydney as part of the 2016 Professor Walter Stibbs Lecture, an annual lecture by a distinguished astronomer of international standing. A Sydney Ideas co-presentation http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/dr_natalie_batalha.shtml

There is now almost universal recognition around the world that 'teaching matters' and that the quality of teaching is crucial in social and economic development. However, there has been remarkably little change in the ways in which teachers' work is constructed and the ways in which teachers are educated for a lifetime of preparing young people for their future worlds. In this talk Ian Menter reflects on debates about the nature of teaching and teacher education in order to challenge much of the dominant thinking, suggesting that such thinking is often driven by ideology and prejudice rather than by careful deliberation or by the use of research evidence. His conclusion is that there are important underlying values that can be traced through the history of teaching which may now be more important than ever, but that the ways in which these values are embodied in the work of contemporary teachers are in need of major reconsideration. This lecture was a part of the University of Sydney's Faculty of Education and Social Work Dean’s Lecture Series which provides an opportunity to hear internationally renowned experts as they contribute to the debates and discussions in education, social work and social policy.

Ugandan human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo and Human Rights Watch Senior Africa Researcher Maria Burnett examine Uganda’s failure to make progress on human rights issues, and discuss what can be done to ensure its citizens can freely exercise fundamental human rights. Hosted by Dr Susan Banki, lecturer in human rights at the University of Sydney.

As the United States teeters under the weight of Trumpism while inequalities of race, class, gender, and nativity inspire protests and political organising, it has become increasingly common to harken back to the political divisions of the 1960s. This roundtable panel will explore the usefulness of the ‘1960s’ as a point of comparison for contemporary politics and culture not just in the U.S. but around the world in locales like Brazil and Greece. What has changed in the way we think about the 1960s as scholarship on the decade has passed from those who participated in its upheavals to those who study it as scholarly project? Is the ‘1960s’ a coherent category of historical time and analysis? If so, are the inequalities, oppressions, and counter-revolutions of the contemporary world producing a ‘new 1960s?’. The four panellists, all historians of American social movements who teach outside of the United States, will offer diverse answers to these questions while placing the idea of the 1960s in the contemporary political and cultural context.