Sydney Ideas

A Sydney Ideas lecture by James E Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Trained in physics and astronomy, Hansen is best known for his Congressional testimony on climate change in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of global warming. He has been an active researcher in planetary atmospheres and climate science for nearly 40 years, with the last 30 years focused on climate research, publishing more than 100 scholarly articles on the latter topic.

Time Magazine designated Dr. Hansen as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2006, a tribute to his continuing efforts to serve the public through his scientific work.

For more info see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2010/professor_james_hansen.shtml

A Sydney Ideas lecture by James E Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Trained in physics and astronomy, Hansen is best known for his Congressional testimony on climate change in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of global warming. He has been an active researcher in planetary atmospheres and climate science for nearly 40 years, with the last 30 years focused on climate research, publishing more than 100 scholarly articles on the latter topic.

Time Magazine designated Dr. Hansen as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2006, a tribute to his continuing efforts to serve the public through his scientific work.

For more info see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2010/professor_james_hansen.shtml

Confucius (traditional dates 551-479 BCE) lived during the waning years of the Zhou dynasty. He was deeply troubled by the disorder of his age and took it upon himself to teach others about Zhou virtues as well as to instruct them on how to cultivate such virtue in themselves. Confucius’s efforts mark the beginning of the traditional Chinese emphasis on education and the crucial role of self-improvement and self-cultivation in any ethical system. Some of his followers refined his teachings on the importance of education while philosophers from competing schools of thought rejected Confucian ideas as outmoded and ineffective.

First Emperor of Qin (239-210 BCE) assumed the throne as king at a young age and was aided and tutored by a brilliant minister named Lü Buwei. The young king eventually outgrew his minister and aggressively took over the reins of government himself. He conquered his enemies and created an empire in 221 BCE. The First Emperor appointed as his chief minister an accomplished legalist thinker named Li Si. Together they created a philosophy for empire based on the primacy of law, the high (and almost god-like) status of the emperor, and a system of universal standards that embraced everything from thought to weights and measures. These features of his rule continue as hallmarks of Chinese governance to this day.

SPEAKER: Professor Jeffrey Riegel, Professor and Head of School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts

Confucius (traditional dates 551-479 BCE) lived during the waning years of the Zhou dynasty. He was deeply troubled by the disorder of his age and took it upon himself to teach others about Zhou virtues as well as to instruct them on how to cultivate such virtue in themselves. Confucius’s efforts mark the beginning of the traditional Chinese emphasis on education and the crucial role of self-improvement and self-cultivation in any ethical system. Some of his followers refined his teachings on the importance of education while philosophers from competing schools of thought rejected Confucian ideas as outmoded and ineffective.

First Emperor of Qin (239-210 BCE) assumed the throne as king at a young age and was aided and tutored by a brilliant minister named Lü Buwei. The young king eventually outgrew his minister and aggressively took over the reins of government himself. He conquered his enemies and created an empire in 221 BCE. The First Emperor appointed as his chief minister an accomplished legalist thinker named Li Si. Together they created a philosophy for empire based on the primacy of law, the high (and almost god-like) status of the emperor, and a system of universal standards that embraced everything from thought to weights and measures. These features of his rule continue as hallmarks of Chinese governance to this day.

SPEAKER: Professor Jeffrey Riegel, Professor and Head of School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts

Confucius (traditional dates 551-479 BCE) lived during the waning years of the Zhou dynasty. He was deeply troubled by the disorder of his age and took it upon himself to teach others about Zhou virtues as well as to instruct them on how to cultivate such virtue in themselves. Confucius’s efforts mark the beginning of the traditional Chinese emphasis on education and the crucial role of self-improvement and self-cultivation in any ethical system. Some of his followers refined his teachings on the importance of education while philosophers from competing schools of thought rejected Confucian ideas as outmoded and ineffective.

First Emperor of Qin (239-210 BCE) assumed the throne as king at a young age and was aided and tutored by a brilliant minister named Lü Buwei. The young king eventually outgrew his minister and aggressively took over the reins of government himself. He conquered his enemies and created an empire in 221 BCE. The First Emperor appointed as his chief minister an accomplished legalist thinker named Li Si. Together they created a philosophy for empire based on the primacy of law, the high (and almost god-like) status of the emperor, and a system of universal standards that embraced everything from thought to weights and measures. These features of his rule continue as hallmarks of Chinese governance to this day.

SPEAKER: Professor Jeffrey Riegel, Professor and Head of School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts

In 2004, construction began in Jerusalem on the local branch of the Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance, designed by the leading American architect, Frank Gehry. The museum is now being built over the remains of what had been the largest and most important Muslim cemetery in Palestine, which had been in continual use from the time of the Crusades up until 1948.

Professor Saree Makdisi examines the clash between the two competing claims to the same site, and offers a paradigmatic case to explore and rethink the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, since all of the elements of the larger conflict are also in play in the struggle over this specific site.

For more info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2009/excavating_memory_jerusalem.shtml

In 2004, construction began in Jerusalem on the local branch of the Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance, designed by the leading American architect, Frank Gehry. The museum is now being built over the remains of what had been the largest and most important Muslim cemetery in Palestine, which had been in continual use from the time of the Crusades up until 1948.

Professor Saree Makdisi examines the clash between the two competing claims to the same site, and offers a paradigmatic case to explore and rethink the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, since all of the elements of the larger conflict are also in play in the struggle over this specific site.

For more info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2009/excavating_memory_jerusalem.shtml

In 2004, construction began in Jerusalem on the local branch of the Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance, designed by the leading American architect, Frank Gehry. The museum is now being built over the remains of what had been the largest and most important Muslim cemetery in Palestine, which had been in continual use from the time of the Crusades up until 1948.

Professor Saree Makdisi examines the clash between the two competing claims to the same site, and offers a paradigmatic case to explore and rethink the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, since all of the elements of the larger conflict are also in play in the struggle over this specific site.

For more info and speaker's biography see this page: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2009/excavating_memory_jerusalem.shtml

SPEAKER: Professor David Goodman, Professor of Chinese Politics, and Director, Institute of Social Sciences

Mao Zedong (1893-1976) is best known as the founder of the People’s Republic of China. He led the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 until his death, and brought it to political power in 1949. Mao is well known as a revolutionary, a guerrilla leader, a political and military strategist and icon for post-modern art. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that started in the mid-1960s he attacked the establishment of the new party state in China for “succumbing to the sugar coated bullets of the bourgeoisie”, though his motives have always been a matter of controversy inside as well as outside the People’s Republic of China. Mao himself was always anxious to be seen as an ideologist, as well as an active revolutionary. The lecture will introduce the different and often competing strands in his ideology, which remain an important legacy for China today.

SPEAKER: Professor David Goodman, Professor of Chinese Politics, and Director, Institute of Social Sciences

Mao Zedong (1893-1976) is best known as the founder of the People’s Republic of China. He led the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 until his death, and brought it to political power in 1949. Mao is well known as a revolutionary, a guerrilla leader, a political and military strategist and icon for post-modern art. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that started in the mid-1960s he attacked the establishment of the new party state in China for “succumbing to the sugar coated bullets of the bourgeoisie”, though his motives have always been a matter of controversy inside as well as outside the People’s Republic of China. Mao himself was always anxious to be seen as an ideologist, as well as an active revolutionary. The lecture will introduce the different and often competing strands in his ideology, which remain an important legacy for China today.