Sydney Ideas

With five prime ministers in five years, and shocking truths coming to light daily about our institutions – from unions to schools to detention centres – many fear our system is broken.

'Griffith Review: Fixing the System' brings together writers and analysts to provide fresh insights into how to fix the system and why it matters.

Political biographer Chris Wallace, former teacher GJ Stroud, journalist Ann Arnold and academic Tamson Pietsch join Griffith Review editor Julianne Schultz in a spirited discussion at how our institutions – political, social and legal – both support and fail us, and what we can do about it.

For further info see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/fixing_the_system.shtml

A recent series of controversial moves by the new Polish Government, especially the weakening of the Constitutional Tribunal and subjecting the public media to ministerial appointments and supervision, have triggered mass protests in Poland and concerns among EU officials.

Professor Jan Pakulski analyses these developments in the broader context of the rapid economic development, new social divisions, and the polarisation within the Polish political elite combined with electoral re-alignment.

For further info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_jan_pakulski.shtml

Kim Williams AM has had a long and stellar career in news media, film and television, and music. Over four decades he has served on numerous boards in the cultural sector. In this Sydney Ideas event he gives an inaugural Australian Book Review (ABR) Patrons’ Lecture on Cultural Renewal in Modern Australia: Philanthropy, public discourse and the role of the ‘public academy’ in the modern era.

For further info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/kim_williams.shtml

When a pineapple soda can becomes a ‘bomb’ and takes down a Russian airliner, the everyday objects around us provoke a sense of horror. International Relations is in need of a quantum turn so that we can understand the very real consequences of events and things whose capacities defy easy or rational explanation.

SPEAKER: Jairus Grove, University of Hawaii Center for Futures Studies

The 2016 Q Lecture was presented by the Centre for International Security Studies with the support of the School of Social and Political Sciences and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

For further info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/q_lecture_2016.shtml

Renmin University Professor Christof Mauch, Director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, looks back to understand how societies have dealt with energy expectations, energy needs, and energy transitions in the past. Can a look at the past help us understand the present and the future?

For further info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2016/professor_christof_mauch.shtml

Cancer is the most studied phenomenon in biology, with over a million published papers, yet it remains poorly understood. In the USA alone, more than a trillion dollars has been spent on cancer research, but mortality rates remain little changed in several decades. Maybe progress is so slow because we are thinking about the problem the wrong way?

For the 2015 Charles Perkins Centre Oration, celebrated theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist and author, Professor Paul Davies proposes that by regarding cancer as an ancient biological phenomenon, as opposed to a modern disease, new approaches to therapy can be suggested.

A Sydney Ideas event held on 4 December 2015

http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2015/professor_paul_davies.shtml

On 11 November 1975 the Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam was dismissed from office by the Queens Representative in Australia, Governor-General Sir John Kerr.

Three scholars share their research on the long-lasting impact of the ‘The Dismissal’ on Australian legal and political life.

Hosted by Andrew West, broadcaster and presenter of ABC Radio National’s Ethics and Religion Report. Panellists: Dr Harshan Kumarasingham, University of London; Professor Anne Twomey, University of Sydney; Associate Professor James Curran, University of Sydney.

For more info and speakers’ biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2015/dismissal_40_years_forum.shtml

Melanoma is known throughout Australia, however, it is only when our family or ourselves are directly impacted that we realise the seriousness of this type of skin cancer.

Professor Graham Mann and Associate Professor Georgina Long explain firsthand the science behind the latest immunotherapy treatment for melanoma which has been heralded as "the most important development in the treatment of this disease ever and a landmark in terms of cancer treatment in general". This innovative treatment has seen life-expectancy rates triple and has made waves in the science and medical worlds.

Professor Mann and Associate Professor Long also provides details of the University of Sydney's world-class melanoma program. This includes the Melanoma Research Database - containing information on over 40,000 patients' melanomas - and the ambitious Melanoma Genome Project that is mapping the entire genome of 500 melanomas.

A Sydney Ideas co-presented with the Sydney Cancer Research Network event held on 10 November 2015

http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2015/melanoma.shtml

Bassem Youssef - credited as a key figure in the Arab Spring - is a global icon of freedom of expression and political satire. Despite its immense popularity, in June 2014 Youssef had to end his TV satire show, Al Bernameg, and leave Egypt due to continued threats and harassment.

Bassem Youssef joins The Chaser’s Chris Taylor for a conversation about the perils and power of laughing at politicians.

For more info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2015/bassem_youssef_and_the_chaser.shtml

In this Sydney Ideas lecture China's est-selling contemporary science fiction author Liu Cixin, winner of the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, talked about how his vision for modern China is reflected in his work.

Professor Song Mingwei, critic and literary scholar at Wellesley College, USA, was in conversation with Liu Cixin to talk about the growing popularity of science fiction in China, and how it reflects the population’s longing for, but anxiety about, development and its unknown impact on humanity.

For further info see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2015/liu_cixin.shtml