The Wheeler Centre

On the eve of the expected execution of Bali Nine prisoners Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Indonesia, Fifth Estate host Sally Warhaft speaks with Tom Porteous, deputy program director at Human Rights Watch (Washington DC) and Julian Burnside, human rights and refugee advocate, about how we can form effective responses to human rights breaches … and how we can broach the logic of capital punishment in a human rights context.

Join host Jill Singer for a conversation with Barry Jones – one of the nation’s true polymaths.

Meet Roxane Gay, one of America’s most engaging new literary voices, in conversation with Maxine Beneba Clarke. Their wide-ranging conversation covers inclusive approaches to feminism and activism, as well as the role of race, history and power in informing An Untamed State.

In partnership with the Sustainable Living Festival, Simran Sethi shares her wisdom on food, sustainability and climate change with the Wheeler Centre.

What’s a fifth birthday celebration without something just perfect for five year olds? We invited children’s author and entertainer Julia Donaldson, creator of The Gruffalo, to take young readers on a musical and storytelling adventure – along with her many creations, including the Gruffalo.

2015 marks the Wheeler Centre’s fifth birthday, and to celebrate, we bring you a very special chapter of our beloved annual tradition: A Gala Night of Storytelling.

Our understanding of gender diversity has shifted exponentially over the past few decades, even reaching into the classroom. More than ever before children are dressing and living in their chosen gender, and courts are increasingly supporting their choices through mandated access to puberty blockers leading into their adult years. But what are the public attitudes to trans bodies, and how are these attitudes evolving? How is the trans community constituted and how is it faring?

Clementine Ford, Alice Pung, Kelli Jean Drinkwater and Karina Quinn look at what the body can realistically tell us about identity, what we can’t assume – and the space in between. We’ll open a space for all different kinds of bodies – fat bodies, fit bodies, old bodies, diasporic bodies, even absent bodies – to communicate their true identities.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what do the covers of books by female authors say? Headless torsos, giant lips, 50 shades of pink and pastel … why are the covers of books by women usually feminine, even when the content is not?