Sydney Ideas

The winners of the Australian Book Review prestigious Calibre Essay Prize this year, Michael Adams and Darius Sepehri, read extracts from their Prize-winning essays, and discuss the themes of grief and mortality found in both pieces.

Michael Adams, an associate professor of Human Geography at the University of Wollongong, won first prize for ‘Salt Blood’, a remarkable and highly original meditation on freediving and mortality, which was published in the June-July 2017 issue of Australian Book Review.

Darius Sepehri, a PhD student at the University of Sydney, won the second prize for his essay ‘To Speak of Sorrow’, an essay about the many kinds of grief and their different expressions in writing and culture, as lament, testimony, or ritual. His essay will be published in the August issue of Australian Book Review.

Hosted by Peter Rose, Editor of Australian Book Review. A Sydney Ideas event at the University of Sydney on Monday 7 August, 2017 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/australian_book_review_calibre_essay.shtml

Causes of compulsive behaviour are complex and unexpected. What are they? Our researchers reveal the mental, physical and social origins of addiction and highlight discoveries that are improving people’s lives.

Panelists:

- Professor Nick Lintzeris, Clinical Professor, Discipline of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, University of Sydney, and Director and Senior Staff Specialist, Drug and Alcohol Services, South East Sydney Local Health District, NSW Health

- Professor Kate Conigrave, Conjoint Professor Addiction Medicine, Head, Indigenous Substance Misuse Programs Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, University of Sydney

- Dr Andrew J. Campbell, Senior Lecturer in Psychology , Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, e-mental health, cyber-psychology, and child, adolescent and family mental health

Held as part of Sydney Ideas Health Forums series on 2 August, 2017:

http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/health_forums_2017.shtml

Experts in law, security, and international relations consider why have cultural, religious, and national issues reappeared in the new international order.

Speakers:

- Professor James Der Derian, Centre for International Security Studies, the University of Sydney

- Professor Christian Reus-Smit, Professor of International Relations at the University of Queensland

- Professor Anne Orford, Laureate Program in International Law at the University of Melbourne

- Professor Glenda Sluga, ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor of International History, the University of Sydney

This panel was held as part of The Thinker’s Guide to the 21st Century series on 2 August, 2017. http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/thinkers_guide_21st_century_2017.shtml

A multi-award Iraqi film director, producer and civil activist in in conversation with Dr Lucia Sorbera from the Department of Arabic Language and Cultures on social power of cinema.

How did Jane Austen, a no-name author in her own day, become an international literary icon? It started long before Colin Firth’s wet-white-shirt Darcy. Devoney Looser will introduce you to some of the unsung innovators who first turned ‘Miss Austen’ into a household name, from artists and activists to actors and audiences, looking at how they made and remade her image before popular audiences.

July 2017 marks the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death. This talk celebrates Austen’s life and writings and makes sense of how her characters and stories have come to be imprinted on each new generation of readers.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor Devoney Looser is Professor of English at Arizona State University, writes on literature by women. Her most recent book, The Making of Jane Austen (2017) was named a Publishers Weekly Best Summer Book. Fun fact: Devoney has also played roller derby under the nom de guerre Stone Cold Jane Austen.

Held as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 20 July 2017:

http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/professor_devoney_looser.shtml

This forum explores the shifts in assumptions, mindsets and ways of thinking that are required to achieve gender equality and how symbols, such as portraits may assist.

The topics are discussed by Professor Emerita Margaret Harris, Dr Ann Stephen, Dr Scott Hill and the artist Celeste Chandler.

Held as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 19 July, 2017:

http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/portraits_and_place_forum.shtml

Millennials, those born in the final decades of the twentieth century, have come of age in an unsettled world – one that offers few clear or established pathways to a secure future. But what exactly are they up against, and how are they responding to the societies they've grown into?

Griffith Review 56 writers Natalie O'Brien, Frances Flanagan, Michael Newton, and Adam Peaston join assistant editor Jerath Head to explore work, labour and economics in the twenty-first century.

Held as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 12 July 2017:

http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/GR56_millennials_strike_back_forum.shtml

Our culture is our identity. It is multiple expressions of plural identities. Nobody owns it. We share it with each other. More…or less. The stories that resonate, the luminous moments, are our inheritance from the past and our bequest to future generations.

The endeavour for the storyteller is to illuminate experience. For the executive like me, the endeavour is to enable the storyteller.

Dr Ruth Harley explores my experience as a CEO in the screen sector on both sides of the Tasman in terms identity, shared experience, diverse perspectives, the role and practice of government as an enabler and the essential humanity of our endeavour.

She concludes with some personal perspectives of the opportunities and challenges for the screen industry and how they might play out in New Zealand and Australia in the global screen industry.

Held as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 7 July 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/dr_ruth_harley.shtml

Fusion power is one of a very few sustainable options to replace fossil fuels as the world's primary energy source. Although the conditions for fusion have been reached, much remains to be done to turn scientific success into commercial electrical power. Fusion has progressed from the insight of Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington in 1920 and Fermi's speculations in 1946 to the threshold of fusion burn at JET at Culham and soon in the international experiment ITER.

The challenge of providing carbon free energy for the whole world is greater than ever. We need fusion.

In this Sydney Ideas lecture, Professor Steven Cowley, theoretical physicist and international authority on nuclear fusion and astrophysical plasmas, and President of Corpus Christi College Oxford examines two key questions: What scientific questions must be resolved and how can we hasten the first fusion electricity?

A phenomenal mathematician, Hanna Neumann achieved her success in the face of the Nazis, an imprisoned husband, and entrenched misogyny. She arrived in Australia in 1963 to take academic positions at the Australian National University, and was made chair of pure mathematics in 1964, making her the first female Professor of Mathematics in Australia. Her most widely known work 'Varieties of Groups' was published in 1967.

Dr Peter Neumann OBE describes the life of his mother, Hanna Neumann, and her long and distinguished career as a female mathematician in the early part of the 20th century.