From Lotteries to Polls to Monte Carlo

Venue: Carrillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre

Presenters: Professor Jeffrey Rosenthal

Jeffrey Rosenthal Public Lecture

This talk will discuss randomness and probability, to answer such questions as:
Just how unlikely is it to win a lottery jackpot?
If you flip 100 coins, how close will the number of heads be to 50?
How many dying patients must be saved to demonstrate that a new medical drug is effective?
Why do strange coincidences occur so often?
If a poll samples 1,000 people, how accurate are the results?
How did statistics help to expose the Ontario Lottery Retailer Scandal?
If two babies die in the same family without apparent cause, should the parents be convicted of murder?
Why do casinos always make money, even though gamblers sometimes win and sometimes lose?

And how is all of this related to Monte Carlo Algorithms, an extremely popular and effective method for scientific computing? No mathematical background is required to attend.

Professor Jeffrey Rosenthal is a professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Toronto.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7767-from-lotteries-to-polls-to-monte-carlo

Indigenous traditional medicine and biomedical care: Contradictory or complementary?

Venue: Ground floor auditorium, Peter Doherty Institute

Presenters: Professor Ana María Oyarce

Internationally, Indigenous peoples continue to maintain their traditional health systems while concurrently accessing biomedical care, and their right to do so is enshrined in international law, as well as in the national legislature of many countries. However, constructing health policy to uphold these rights in practice has proven to be difficult in countries as diverse as India, Chile and Australia. Fundamental differences exist between the frameworks: Indigenous conceptualisations of health tend to be holistic, encompassing an understanding of the community, nature and spirituality; biomedicine is individualistic, hierarchical and positivistic. Regulation of health care is normally a responsibility of the State, in place to protect citizens from misconduct. However, in the case of traditional Indigenous health agents, State regulation may serve as an extension of colonising practices, forcing Indigenous beliefs to be packaged to suit Western structures—or it may form part of the process of officially recognising and validating traditional Indigenous medicine—or both.

Medical pluralism is an embedded and enduring reality of Indigenous health worldwide, pointing to the need to understand the systems as complementary, rather than in contradictory. This lecture will consider the complexities of the ways Indigenous traditional and biomedical health systems interact with each other and the implications for public health policy.

Professor Ana María Oyarce is an anthropologist internationally recognised for her expertise in Indigenous health, and particularly known for her focus on cross-cultural concepts of health, the valorisation of Indigenous health knowledge and the articulation between traditional Indigenous models of health and biomedical care

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7771-indigenous-traditional-medicine-and-biomedical-care-contradictory-or-complementary

The Death of Shakespeare

Venue: Forum Lecture Theatre, Arts West

Presenters: Professor Ian Donaldson

On 23 April 1616, four hundred years ago this year, William Shakespeare died in the small Warwickshire town of his birth.Two days later he was quietly buried in the chancel of its parish church. Beyond Stratford-upon-Avon the death of Shakespeare seems to have aroused very little interest. No gatherings in his memory were held in London or elsewhere in the country. The company of players that he had led for so long went on with their usual business, and their patron James I and his court didn’t pause to honour his passing. No verses bewailing his death of Shakespeare were published or collected, as was customary at the death of prominent people – and, in particular, of prominent poets. None of his contemporaries, in Britain or abroad, noted the fact of his death in any surviving letter, journal, or record.

Why was the death of Shakespeare such a non-event? Why weren’t his prodigious achievements more widely celebrated and remembered; why wasn’t his passing more deeply mourned? What does this curious silence tell us about Shakespeare’s reputation, and the state of letters in Britain, in 1616? This talk will seek to explore these puzzling, but seldom asked, questions.

Professor Ian Donaldson has taught at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and at the ANU, and is currently an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7764-the-death-of-shakespeare

Good Food for 9 Billion: Community Forum

Venue: Carrillo Gantner Theatre, Sydney Myer Asia Centre

Presenters: Dr Anneline Padayachee, Mr Patrick Heffer, Ms Lynne Strong, Mr Mick Keogh, Ms Emma Dean, Professor Mark Sutton, Ms Maxine McKew

By 2050, the world population is expected to be nine billion people. To feed this population well, we will have to revise what we eat and how we produce food.

In this free panel discussion, renowned cooks, researchers, primary producers and industry experts will explore how we can sustainably produce enough high-quality, healthy food to feed the world in the face of population growth and climate change.

The panel includes:

• Professor Mark Sutton: environmental physicist and Chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI)
• Emma Dean: cook, forager, author and winner of the 2013 series of MasterChef Australia
• Mick Keogh: Executive Director of the Australian Farm Institute
• Lynne Strong: agriculturalist and Managing Climate Variability Climate Champion
• Patrick Heffer: Senior Director, International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA)
• Dr Anneline Padayachee: nutrition researcher and Innovation Partnerships Project Manager at Meat and Livestock Australia

Click here for more information or to register.

The panel will be facilitated by Maxine McKew, Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne, former MP for Bennelong and before that anchor of the ABC’s Lateline and 7:30 Report. She will take questions from the audience and lead the panel in a discussion of:

• What good food is – what we are getting right and wrong about the way we eat
• How our diet affects the environment, and what we may need to change in future
• How we can ensure the sustainability of the world's food supply
• Ways we have improved farming technology in the past century and what we can do to improve it in the future

This community forum will run alongside the 2016 International Nitrogen Initiative Conference (INI2016). Bus transport will be provided for INI2016 participants between the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the University of Melbourne.

This public forum is part of the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences Dean's Lecture series.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7752-good-food-for-9-billion-community-forum

New Approaches to Alzheimer’s

Venue: Ian Potter Auditorium, Kenneth Myer Building

Presenters: Professor Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE

In this lecture Professor Susan Greenfield will explore the unique approaches she is taking as founder and Chief Scientific Officer of NeuroBio to develop novel, effective therapeutics for Alzheimer's Disease. Baroness Susan Greenfield is renowned for her engaging and illuminating presentations and will explore a unique approach to arresting cell death in Alzheimer's and related disorders looking at core mechanism that could underlie the neurodegenerative process itself.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7760-new-approaches-to-alzheimer-s

A Day in the Life of a Brain: The Neuroscience of Consciousness from Dawn ‘til Dusk

Venue: Ian Potter Auditorium, Kenneth Myer Building

Presenters: Professor Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE

A Day in the Life of a Brain, will explore the way we all construct and experience our take on the world through our own private thoughts. In the sequel to bestseller The Private Life of the Brain, Baroness Susan Greenfield combines scientific insight with straightforward narrative as she traces consciousness over the course of a day – from being woken by an alarm clock to walking the dog; working in an open plan office and our sensitivity to colour; the qualities of a creative mind or the mental effects of, say, dementia or depression; from minding your teenage son to dreaming, and the laying down of memory. Copies of A Day in the life of a Brain will be available for purchase after the lecture.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7759-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-brain-the-neuroscience

Breaking bad: Regulating the Responses of Teachers to Students' Behaviours of Concern

Venue: Q230, Kwong Lee Dow Building

Presenters: Professor Bernadette McSherry

Melbourne Graduate School of Education Dean's Lecture Series 2016

The term ‘breaking bad,’ which originated in the American Southwest, refers to someone who defies authority or challenges convention. Many teachers have experienced challenging student behaviour, but what if that behaviour is so extreme that it puts the student or others at risk of serious harm? This presentation will outline relevant Australian laws and policy guidelines that regulate the use of ‘restrictive interventions’ in educational settings. These interventions restrict a student’s freedom of movement and can range from confinement in a room, to the use of physical force or devices.

Professor Bernadette McSherry will highlight some gaps in regulation, human rights implications and the difficulty in gaining accurate data in the absence of mandatory reporting of interventions. Drawing on research from the health sector, this presentation will also outline de-escalation techniques aimed at reducing the use of restrictive interventions.

Professor McSherry is the Foundation Director of the Melbourne Social Equity Institute at the University of Melbourne.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7749-breaking-bad-regulating-the-responses-of-teachers-to-students-behaviours

Education in the 21st Century: Technology for good or ill?

Venue: Q230 Level 2, Kwong Lee Dow Building

Presenters: Professor Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE

Socrates’ opposition of writing as a complete method for communicating knowledge is often invoked in debates over the value of digital technologies in the classroom. Is this a useful anecdote to the debate? What evidence should inform our planning for educating the current and next generations? What are the features of an education that will prepare our children to flourish and shape society for a positive future?

Join Baroness Greenfield in an exploration of these issues followed by discussion with Panel

Members:

Dr Amy Gullickson, Senior Lecturer, Associate Director Teaching and Learning, Centre for Program Evaluations

Dr Dan Loton, Research Fellow, Centre for Positive Psychology

Dr Olivia Metcalf, Research Fellow Pheonix Australia - Centre for Post-traumatic Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry

Moderated by Associate Professor Lindsay Oades, Director,Centre for Positive Psychology

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7758-education-in-the-21st-century-technology-for-good-or-ill

Shine a Light on Lung Cancer Research

Venue: Davis Auditorium, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

Presenters: Ms Casey Ah-Cann, Dr Tracy Leong, Dr Sarah Best, Dr Kate Sutherland

Lung cancer is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer but the most common cause of cancer death in Australia.

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and Lung Foundation Australia invite you to this free event. Find out about the latest lung cancer research from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Tours of the lung cancer laboratory will also be available at the event.

Please RSVP by Monday 21 November

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7742-shine-a-light-on-lung-cancer-research

Between the Dreaming and the Market: Indigenous Economic Migrants and the world they made

Venue: Copland Theatre, The Spot building

Presenters: Stan Grant

2016 Narrm Oration

The University of Melbourne is delighted to welcome Stan Grant to deliver the 2016 Narrm Oration. Mr Grant is a renowned journalist and author and we look forward to his important contribution.

2016 has been an 'annus horribilus' for indigenous people. A ten year old girl took her own life in a tragic reminder that Aboriginal kids are nearly ten times more likely to commit suicide. The treatment of boys of Don Dale detention centre outraged the nation, sparked a royal commission and shone a light into the plight of the most incarcerated population in the country. Deaths in custody, protest, violence, and a crisis in indigenous policy all paint a dire picture. Yet amid the gloom there is a spark of hope: more indigenous kids are finishing school and graduating university, indigenous performers are topping our charts and winning awards, indigenous sportsmen dominate their fields and the indigenous middle class is growing faster than any other sector of the population. These are the descendants of the great Aboriginal economic migration of the 20th century. These pioneers caught the tailwinds of economic boom and social change, they transformed their lives and altered forever our country. Stan Grant looks at how far we have come and the pathway to success.

‘Narrm’ refers to the country of the Melbourne region. The Narrm Oration, delivered annually since 2009, profiles leading Indigenous thinkers from across the globe in order to enrich our vision for the future of Indigenous Australia.

The image depicted here is from the art of William Barak, Woiwurrung/Wurundjeri, Untitled (Ceremony) from the Koorie Heritage Trust Collection

Indigenous Tertiary Education Conference You may also be interested in the Indigenous Tertiary Education Conference hosted by Trinity College 18-19 November 2016. Last year's Narrm Orator, Professor Marcia Langton AM, will be the Conference Ambassador and Stan Grant will also be involved in this Conference.

from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7726-between-the-dreaming-and-the-market-indigenous-economic-migrants-and

A More Useful Role for Australia in Preventive Diplomacy?

Venue: Theatre 1, Alan Gilbert Building

Presenters: Professor John Braithwaite

Many of the most catastrophic wars of recent times, from Iraq to Yugoslavia, were preventable. Even small countries like Australia can develop capacities for 'relational diplomacy' that make this possible. However, Australia also has responsibilities to help prevent smaller scale wars that have a risk of re-igniting in our region, such as in Bougainville. In this presentation, John Braithwaite will discuss the need for Australia to be more innovative in responding to both these large and small relational challenges.

John Braithwaite is a Distinguished Professor, and founder of the School of Regulation and Global Governance, at the Australian National University.

from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7746-a-more-useful-role-for-australia-in-preventive-diplomacy

2016 Narrm Oration 'Between the Dreaming and the Market: Indigenous Economic Migrants and the world they made'

Venue: Copland Theatre, The Spot building

Presenters: Stan Grant

The University of Melbourne is delighted to welcome Stan Grant to deliver the 2016 Narrm Oration. Mr Grant is a renowned journalist and author and we look forward to his important contribution.

2016 has been an 'annus horribilus' for indigenous people. A ten year old girl took her own life in a tragic reminder that Aboriginal kids are nearly ten times more likely to commit suicide. The treatment of boys of Don Dale detention centre outraged the nation, sparked a royal commission and shone a light into the plight of the most incarcerated population in the country. Deaths in custody, protest, violence, and a crisis in indigenous policy all paint a dire picture. Yet amid the gloom there is a spark of hope: more indigenous kids are finishing school and graduating university, indigenous performers are topping our charts and winning awards, indigenous sportsmen dominate their fields and the indigenous middle class is growing faster than any other sector of the population. These are the descendants of the great Aboriginal economic migration of the 20th century. These pioneers caught the tailwinds of economic boom and social change, they transformed their lives and altered forever our country. Stan Grant looks at how far we have come and the pathway to success.

‘Narrm’ refers to the country of the Melbourne region. The Narrm Oration, delivered annually since 2009, profiles leading Indigenous thinkers from across the globe in order to enrich our vision for the future of Indigenous Australia.

The image depicted here is from the art of William Barak, Woiwurrung/Wurundjeri, Untitled (Ceremony) from the Koorie Heritage Trust Collection

Indigenous Tertiary Education Conference You may also be interested in the Indigenous Tertiary Education Conference hosted by Trinity College 18-19 November 2016. Last year's Narrm Orator, Professor Marcia Langton AM, will be the Conference Ambassador and Stan Grant will also be involved in this Conference.

from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7726-2016-narrm-oration-between-the-dreaming-and-the-market-indigenous

The History of Medieval Islamic Medicine

Venue: The Forum Theatre 153, Level 1, Arts West

Presenters: Professor Peter Pormann

The medical tradition, which developed in the lands of Islam from the seventh century AD onwards, is rich and variegated. Its history stretches over more than a millennium, and involves people of many languages (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Syriac, Hebrew) and faiths (Muslims, Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and pagans). Given the breadth of this field, this lecture will focus on several key themes expressed through individual examples, and illustrated by miniatures, diagrams, and artefacts. These themes include:

The Emergence of Islamic Medicine: During the classical age of Islam and under the aegis of the ‘Abbasids' (ca. 750–950), an extremely sophisticated medical tradition emerged. Based mainly on Greek medical theory and practice, it blended its own heritage with the legacy of the other cultures with which it was in contact including the Byzantines, Alexandrians, Sasanians, and Syriac-speaking Christians.

Medical Theory: The system adopted in the learned medical tradition is generally Galenic, and its main features will be explored briefly. We will notably look at Ibn al-Nafis’ ‘discovery’ of the pulmonary transit (and dispel some myths surrounding this topic). In addition we will examine how medical knowledge was organised in some of the most famous medical encyclopaedias of the time, including Avicenna’s Canon.

Medical Practice: In recent times, scholars have raised the question as to what extent the theory described in the medical manuals corresponded to actual practice. Here again, some myths (such as Caesarean sections) will be dispelled, whilst interesting cases of clinical innovation will be presented.

Physicians and Society: Who were the doctors of Damascus and Toledo, and of Cairo and Baghdad? How did they function within the larger society? What public health initiatives were deployed to provide the poor as well as the powerful with access to medical care? These questions will be discussed, with special reference to the hospital and other institutions of Islamic charity, for which the Muslim Middle Ages are deservedly famous.

Popular Medicine: Magic and divination, pious ritual and prophetic medicine formed as much a part of the therapeutic arsenal as more ‘learned’ practices. We will briefly look at some texts and artefacts in order to augment our understanding of medieval responses to disease.

Continuous tradition: To conclude, this lecture will explore the impact of the Islamic medical tradition on both Western and Eastern medicine. European university medicine emerged on the basis of this tradition (in Latin translation), and still continues to be practised today, not only in the Muslim world, but also in the West. It is this examination of these continuities that will round out this thematic historical overview.

Presenter Peter E. Pormann, D.Litt., M.A., D.Phil., M.Phil. (Oxon); M.A. (Leiden); FRAS, is Professor of Classics and Graeco-Arabic Studies at the University of Manchester.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7736-the-history-of-medieval-islamic-medicine

Refugees and Responses: assessing the challenges

Venue: Woodward Conference Centre, Law Building

Presenters: Dr Jeff Crisp, Professor Joy Damousi, Professor Alison Phipps

Over 65 million people are seeking asylum and protection worldwide. Responses to this vary from solidarity to rejection. Hosted by the EU Centre, this panel of experts examines the challenges from the perspectives of international policy, compassion and relationships.

Panellists:

Dr Jeff Crisp, Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) will assess international responses to the global refugee, migration and displacement challenge.

Professor Joy Damousi, Professor of History at the University of Melbourne will consider if Australia is more or less compassionate and empathetic towards refugees now than in the past.

Professor Alison Phipps, Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow will look at how the arts and humanities can influence policy and action.

The panel discussion will be chaired by Professor Philomena Murray, Research Director (Regional Governance) at the EU Centre and Jean Monnet Chair ad personam in the School of Social and Political Sciences. Associate Professor Harry Minas, Director of the Melbourne Refugee Studies Program will be a discussant.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7731-refugees-and-responses-assessing-the-challenges

Performance in Architecture - Design for Comfort

Venue: B117 Theatre, Basement level, Melbourne School of Design, Masson Road, University of Melbourne

Presenters: Mr Wolfgang Kessling

During the hot summer months, watching an outdoor sports match or concert can be tantamount to baking uncomfortably in the sun -- but it doesn't have to be. During this lecture, physicist and climate engineer Wolfgang Kessling reveals sustainable design innovations that cool us from above and below, and even collects solar energy for later use.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7729-performance-in-architecture-design-for-comfort

Cuisine and the Construction of Russian National Identity

Venue: Discursive Space (Level 5, Room 553), Arts West

Presenters: Professor Darra Goldstein

Professor Darra Goldstein explores Russian national identity and cuisine from the 18th century into the present.

This talk explores Russian national identity and cuisine from the 18th century into the present. Ever since Peter the Great opened his country to the West, the Russians have struggled with ambivalence toward outside influences. This unease has extended beyond political wariness into cuisine, with Western foodways alternately embraced and rejected over the years.

Today, following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Western food is again politically fraught. The economic sanctions imposed by Europe, Australia, and the U.S. have led Russia to ban imports of meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, and dairy products, causing widespread food shortages. Where Soviet Customs officers once seized illicit magazines and books, Russian Border Control now confiscates cheese and other Western foodstuffs.

Russians are famously accustomed to deprivation, but these latest shortages have led not to resignation but to a gradual revival of artisanal production that is transforming Russia’s gastronomic landscape. We can see a new form of nationalism being played out in the culinary sphere.

Professor Darra Goldstein is the Willcox B. and Harriet M. Adsit Professor of Russian at Williams College and Founding Editor of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture. She has published widely on literature, culture, art, and cuisine.

Supported by the Macgeorge Bequest.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7719-cuisine-and-the-construction-of-russian-national-identity

The art of soil science communication: 2016 G.W. Leeper Lecture

Venue: Lower Theatre, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, Building 142

Presenters: Associate Professor Annie McNeill

A growing global awareness of the importance of natural resources to sustaining the theatre of life on our planet has increased the imperative to advertise the pivotal role soil plays to the entire human race.

Soil scientists bear the responsibility of conveying the ‘fruits of their labours’ to an eclectic audience – from peers, politicians and representatives of industry to primary school children, higher education students and the public at large.

Communication is key to spreading the soil science word and success, in common with actors and journalists in the arts world, is reliant on soil scientists possessing effective performance skills.

The lecture aims to stimulate, provoke and engender discussion because without such conversation soil science is simply not on the radar.

In the 25th G.W. Leeper Memorial Lecture, Associate Professor Annie McNeill will explore some key attributes for successful communication of soil science. She will also consider pitfalls and positives of various media for communication of soil science to audiences who differ widely in their modes of assimilation.

The Leeper Lecture is part of the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences' Dean's Lecture series.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7727-the-art-of-soil-science-communication-2016-g-w-leeper-lecture

2016 Narrm Oration

Venue: Copland Theatre, The Spot building

Presenters: Stan Grant

The University of Melbourne is delighted to welcome Stan Grant to deliver the 2016 Narrm Oration. Mr Grant is a renowned journalist and author and we look forward to his important contribution.

‘Narrm’ refers to the country of the Melbourne region. The Narrm Oration, delivered annually since 2009, profiles leading Indigenous thinkers from across the globe in order to enrich our vision for the future of Indigenous Australia.

The image depicted here is from the art of William Barak, Woiwurrung/Wurundjeri, Untitled (Ceremony) from the Koorie Heritage Trust Collection

Indigenous Tertiary Education Conference You may also be interested in the Indigenous Tertiary Education Conference hosted by Trinity College 18-19 November 2016. Last year's Narrm Orator, Professor Marcia Langton AM, will be the Conference Ambassador and Stan Grant will also be involved in this Conference.

from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7726-2016-narrm-oration

Civil Society Resistance to State Violence and Corruption

Venue: Theatre 219, Kwong Lee Dow Building

Presenters: Professor Penny Green

Civil society resistance has the power to expose and ultimately challenge state crime, violence, and corruption. It occurs not only in places where ‘the rule of law’ is absent or precarious, but also in those which have a normative commitment to upholding it. In this seminar, Professor Penny Green will explore the complicated and interdependent relationship between organised civil society and the state. She will contend that the concept of ‘civil society’ is central to understanding both crimes committed by the state and its responses to the crimes of others.

Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Turkey, Tunisia, Burma, Kenya, PNG, Colombia and Israel/Palestine, Professor Green will explore some of the ways in which civil society resistance emerges, survives, and sometimes even ‘flourishes’ under conditions of dictatorship, state violence, and repression. She will examine the role politics, human rights, violence, religion, and charity play when the stakes in demanding justice are very high. Despite the reasons underpinning civil society resistance, this lecture will ultimately highlight how complex and fragile it is to unmask and challenge state criminality.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7705-civil-society-resistance-to-state-violence-and-corruption

Compulsory Mental Health Treatment in the Community: A Least Restrictive Alternative?

Venue: Singapore Theatre (Basement), Melbourne School of Design

Presenters: Professor Steven Segal Fulbright Alumni Fellow and an Honorary Professor at the University of Melbourne

This free public lecture by Professor Steven Segal will consider the utility of community treatment orders as a least restrictive alternative to hospitalisation for protecting health, safety, and quality of life over the course of two decades in Victoria.

This lecture will be followed by a panel discussion, Hosted by Professor Bernadette McSherry, Foundation Director of the Melbourne Social Equity Institute, with Maggie Toko, Chief Executive Officer, Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, Dr Gunvant Patel, Consultant Psychiatrist, St Vincent’s Hospital, Forensicare and the Mental Health Tribunal, and Dr Piers Gooding, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Melbourne Social Equity Institute and Board Member, Belonging Matters.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7723-compulsory-mental-health-treatment-in-the-community-a-least-restrictive

A Conversation with the Honourable Chief Justice French AC

Venue: The David P. Derham theatre, Level 1, Melbourne Law School

Presenters: Professor Carolyn Evans, Robert French Honourable Chief justice

A conversation with the Hon. Chief Justice French AC, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, moderated by Professor Carolyn Evans, Dean and Harrison Moore Professor of Law, Melbourne Law School.

The Honourable Chief Justice Robert French AC was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia on 1 September 2008.

Professor Carolyn Evans is Dean of Melbourne Law School. Carolyn has degrees in Arts and Law from Melbourne University and a doctorate from Oxford University where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar and where she held a stipendiary lectureship for two years before returning to Melbourne in 2000.

This event is co-hosted by Melbourne Law School and the Australian Association of Constitutional Law.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7557-a-conversation-with-the-honourable-chief-justice-french-ac

What Does it Mean to Imagine the Southeast? Four Questions on Southeast Asian Art, 19th Century to Present

Venue: Theatre B, Old Arts Theatre B

Presenters: Professor Patrick D. Flores

This public lecture seeks to offer a broad overview of art in Southeast Asia from the early modern period to the present. It sets the horizon for an initial understanding of an art world and its history. It begins with the formation of certain aspects of modernity in the context of an equivalent formation of art history and the region itself, after which it traces the passage of the modern into the contemporary in the seventies, a time of political tension and economic transition. It then moves into the current situation, the ecologies in place in terms of artists, institutions, markets, practices, and audiences.

Finally, it discusses the various ways in which Southeast Asian art has been recognized through representation in and engagement with different platforms within and across localities and the spheres of interaction elsewhere.

Patrick D. Flores is Professor of Art Studies at the Department of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines, Manila. He is also Curator of the Vargas Museum in Manila and Adjunct Curator of the National Gallery Singapore.

This public lecture is organised by the Asia Environments group of the Asia Institute, with support from the Asia Institute and the School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7711-what-does-it-mean-to-imagine-the-southeast-four-questions

The Power of a Warm Welcome

Venue: Basement , Copland Theatre

Presenters: Professor Uma Kothari

As part of the Faculty of Science Dean's Lecture Series, Professor Uma Kothari from the University of Manchester discusses public representations of refugees and the forging of everyday humanitarianism.

News bulletins, television documentaries, newspaper articles, radio programmes and all forms of social media are debating the ‘refugee crisis’. How does this unprecedented media coverage influence our understandings of refugees and shape the form and extent of the humanitarian response? How can we interpret and challenge ideas and meanings that generate powerful, and often negative, connotations around terms such as ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’?

This presentation begins by briefly examining the history and power of such representations before exploring how current images and texts can simultaneously reinforce global inequalities and forge global solidarities. It examines how dispositions towards refugees can change, leading to an outpouring of compassion and acts of kindness.

We are arguably positioned at a critical moment, one that is replete with potential to shape future inter-generational and cross-cultural understanding through new forms of everyday humanitarianism. In this context, Professor Kothari will conclude by highlighting the politics and power of a warm welcome, suggesting that it can profoundly impact on a refugee’s perception of place and people, forging longer lasting affiliations and promising the development of a future sense of belonging.

Image Credit: Edu Aguilera (Flickr)

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7696-the-power-of-a-warm-welcome

Reflections on a Career in the High Court

Venue: The David P. Derham theatre, Level 1, Melbourne Law School

Presenters: Professor Carolyn Evans, Robert French Honourable Chief justice

A conversation with the Hon. Chief Justice French AC, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, moderated by Professor Carolyn Evans, Dean and Harrison Moore Professor of Law, Melbourne Law School.

The Honourable Chief Justice Robert French AC was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia on 1 September 2008.

Professor Carolyn Evans is Dean of Melbourne Law School. Carolyn has degrees in Arts and Law from Melbourne University and a doctorate from Oxford University where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar and where she held a stipendiary lectureship for two years before returning to Melbourne in 2000.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7557-reflections-on-a-career-in-the-high-court

Finding Ways to Thrive

Venue: Carrillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre

Presenters: Associate Professor Lindsay Oades

Happiness, flourishing, thriving and wellbeing…these terms have increased in popular use in parallel to the rise of wellbeing science and positive psychology. Some claim these ideas are “Pollyanna-ish” and fluffy whilst others overstate the benefits of mechanistic brief cognitive exercises. What however does it mean to thrive and how do individuals, organisations and systems find ways to thrive? By drawing on research from negativity bias and approach/avoidance motivation this presentation will help you understand how wellbeing science provides fertile theory and evidence for yourself, and the health systems, workplaces and education systems that make up our society. This presentation will challenge you to explore your meaning of thriving and your contribution to creating more positive systems by questioning negatively biased systems. You will be introduced to wellbeing literacy as an alternative to disease discourse and encouraged to explore your own intentions to create the conditions to thrive.

The Australian Psychological Society, in collaboration with the Centre for Positive Psychology, the University of Melbourne, is running the Compass for Life campaign.

Associate Professor Lindsay G. Oades is Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. He is a non-executive director of Action for Happiness Australia and the Reach Foundation.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7690-finding-ways-to-thrive

Reading Ryan and Kinsella

Venue: Macmahon Ball Theatre (107), Old Arts

Presenters: Tracy Ryan, Professor John Kinsella

Two acclaimed writers, Tracy Ryan and John Kinsella, both feminist, vegan, anarchist, and pacifist, discuss and read from very different poetries of place and time, and illuminate how their respective fictional and poetic works emerge from distinctly different experiences of the world.

How can two poets who share a life together graft such very different writing practices? Ryan and Kinsella’s readings draw upon their recent collections and works, revealing a work and life in rich counterpoint.

Presented by the Creative Writing program and the Australian Centre.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7683-reading-ryan-and-kinsella

The Global Clean Energy Mix, and Why "All of the Above" Matters

Venue: The Craig Auditorium, The Gateway Building, Trinity College

Presenters: Dr Julio Friedmann

The Paris Accords reflect both an overt commitment by 192 countries to cooperation in clean energy deployment and a tacit recognition that all low-C pathways remain important today. This sensibility, best expressed in President Obama's Climate Action Plan, provides the best chance of success and the lowest cost pathway to achieving climate goals. However, policy structures rarely reflect this sensibility, which places the climate and global economy at risk.

Dr. Julio Friedmann is a senior fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he serves as the Lab’s chief expert in energy technologies and systems.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7698-the-global-clean-energy-mix-and-why-all-of-the

West Papua, Indonesia and the Pacific

Venue: Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room, Level 1, Sidney Myer Asia Centre

Presenters: Mr Nic Maclellan, Dr Budi Hernawan

Dr Budi Hernawan and Nic Maclellan will explore political developments in West Papua and the intractable conflicts between the Jakarta Government and its Papuan opponents. The diplomatic struggle between the Indonesian Government and United Liberation Movement for West Papua in the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the Pacific Islands Forum will also be discussed.

The Melanesian Spearhead Group is the only forum where both Papuans, through the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, and the Indonesian Government have a seat at the same table. Human rights abuses and the behavior of the Indonesian security forces are critical issues both in the politics in West Papua and the diplomatic struggle in the Pacific. At the recent United Nations General Assembly Session the leaders of seven Pacific states raised human rights abuses in West Papua.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7661-west-papua-indonesia-and-the-pacific

What Does a Good IP System Look Like? Good for whom?

Venue: David P. Derham Theatre, Level 1, Law

Presenters: Ms Pippa Hall

The 8th Francis Gurry Lecture on Intellectual Property presented in conjunction with The Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia

This lecture will be held in Melbourne on 21 November, Pippa Hall will also be presenting this lecture in Sydney on 22 November and Perth on 24 November.

In a world where the intangible assets of intellectual property are of increasing commercial significance, governments are looking to IP as the engine of economic growth. Governments are also asking how we can ensure that the IP system is fit for purpose and meeting its objectives.

Knowing how to answer this question has never been more timely, given the Productivity Commission's review of the IP system in Australia.

Pippa Hall will use economic theory and evidence to assess the relative costs and benefits of the IP ecosystem and how this translates into evidence-based policy-making and law reform.

She will share the UK's experiences of reforming its IP regimes (copyright, patents, trade marks and designs), and help us to know what a good IP system looks like (and for whom it is good).

The Francis Gurry Lecture on Intellectual Property

The Francis Gurry Lecture on Intellectual Property was established by the Melbourne Law School, in conjunction with the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia, in 2009. The Lecture is named in honour of the Law School’s distinguished alumnus, Dr Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (2008).

Pippa Hall is the Chief Economist at the UK Intellectual Property Office, where she leads the 15-strong Economics, Research and Evidence team.

Generously supported by Australian Government IP Australia, AIPPI, FICPI, IPSANZ, LESANZ

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Global Free Enterprise as a Morality Play: the Challenge of Endemic Poverty

Venue: Prest Theatre, FBE Building

Presenters: Professor Emeritus Patricia H. Werhane

Industrial and post-industrial free enterprise has been extraordinarily successful at raising living standards for most people living in those communities. Despite the consensus that abject poverty is morally unacceptable, post-industrial free enterprise has not been as successful in reducing poverty either in industrialized nations or globally.

Professor Emeritus Patricia H. Werhane will argue that poverty can be dramatically reduced, both locally and globally, but only if we change our mind sets about the poor, and only if we introduce new forms of capitalism to address cultural and economic differences.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7660-global-free-enterprise-as-a-morality-play-the-challenge-of

New Europe: Past Successes and Uncertain Prospects

Venue: Linkway Room, Level 4, John Medley

Presenters: Dr Andrzej Rzońca

Invited on behalf of the EU Centre, Polish economist Dr Andrzej Rzońca will examine why since the collapse of socialism, New Member States (NMS) of the European Union have performed much better in socio-economic terms than other transition economies. Yet despite progress, the NMS were not a homogenous group of countries: some of them were catching up with the western countries fast while others were converging very slowly. The NMS differed also in terms of their resilience to major shocks such as the global financial crisis. While discussing causes of these differences, Dr Rzońca will refer to two types of institutions: propelling and stabilizing ones.

In spite of successes in the last 26 years, convergence of the NMS to the west has not been accomplished yet. In fact, this convergence slowed down after the outbreak of the global financial crisis, even though economic growth in the western countries was stubbornly sluggish in recent years. Dr Rzońca will discuss possible links between this slowdown and unconventional monetary policy conducted by major central banks. He will also discuss other challenges for the convergence, such as population aging in the NMS and Brexit.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7679-new-europe-past-successes-and-uncertain-prospects

On Justice, Conflict and Responsibility

Venue: Carillo Gantner Lecture Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre

Presenters: Professor Angela Davis Distinguished Professor Emerita

Through her activism and scholarship over many decades, Angela Davis has been deeply involved in movements for social justice around the world. Her work as an educator – both at the university level and in the larger public sphere – has always emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender justice.

Professor Davis has had an extensive teaching career and has lectured throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. In recent years, her work has focused on the criminalisation and incarceration of communities most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. She draws upon her own experiences in the 1970s when she spent 18 months in jail and on trial after being placed on the FBI’s ‘Ten Most Wanted List’.

Professor Davis has conducted extensive research on numerous issues related to race, gender and imprisonment. She has authored 10 books and her most recent book of essays, ‘Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement’ was published in February.

Professor Davis is affiliated with ‘Sisters Inside’ an abolitionist organisation based in Queensland that works in solidarity with women in prison. She is a founding member of ‘Critical Resistance’ a national organisation dedicated to the dismantling of the ‘prison industrial complex’. Having helped to popularise this notion, Davis urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a 21st century abolitionist movement.

This public lecture is part of the inaugural Global Network for Justice. Conflict. Responsibility symposium being held at the University of Melbourne on 24th and 25th October. Registration and more information about the two day symposium here

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Grasping the Ephemeral: Methods for Extracting Cultural Data from Archaeological Textiles

Venue: Theatre 1, 221 Bouverie Street, Theatre 1

Presenters: Dr Catherine Smith

The textile industry is older than pottery, older than agriculture and domestication of animals, and probably consumed more labour in European prehistory than pottery and food production combined (Barber, 1994). The ability to make cordage, or string, from plant fibres is considered a fundamental, cross-cultural aspect of human technology, impacting on human capabilities to adapt to specific environments exponentially (Barber, 1994; Good, 2001; Hardy, 2008). Because of the centrality of textiles to all cultures, archaeological textiles are seen as important sources of cultural information, and their scientific analysis can provide important cultural information relating social boundary, trade relationships, and technological complexity. This presentation will illustrate how the analysis of Māori textiles from New Zealand provides insight into pre-contact lifeways, and the value of using textile artefacts as a source of cultural data.

Dr Catherine Smith is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Materials Science and Technology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand where she teaches cultural aspects of textiles.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7666-grasping-the-ephemeral-methods-for-extracting-cultural-data-from-archaeological

Half-Baked Ideas: When Designers meet Artisans

Venue: Seminar Room, Australia India Institute, The University of Melbourne

Presenters: Kate Bisset-Johnson

There is no word for design in India, creativity and making are intertwined. Craft and culture are also inseparable, making craft practice a cultural and increasing financial activity. The income from crafts in India is estimated to be only second to agriculture, yet many artisans remain living in poverty. There are precedents for designer-artisan collaborations in India and other countries, developing new products for local and global markets, however these design interventions focus primarily on the product rather than the generation of livelihood opportunities. This presentation will discuss research, including student projects and interviews with Artisans living and working in the Indian state of Gujarat, investigating opportunities for different types of designer and artisan engagement including co-creation. These findings suggest some of the artisan’s key objectives and concerns, including recognition and respect of their skill, desire for creativity and intrinsic relationship between a sense of self- identity and craftwork.

Kate Bisset-Johnson lectures in the Industrial Design and Product Design Engineering Programs at Swinburne University.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7651-half-baked-ideas-when-designers-meet-artisans

Designs on Punishment: The Architecture of Incarceration and the Architecture of Hope

Venue: Public Lecture Theatre, Old Arts Building

Presenters: Professor Yvonne Jewkes

Designs on Punishment: The Architecture of Incarceration and the Architecture of Hope

The 2016 John Barry Memorial Lecture in Criminology

What should prisons look like? How would you design a new correctional facility? And why are the UK and Australia following the USA in building larger institutions, when countries in many parts of Europe are adamant that ‘small is beautiful’ when it comes to prison design?

Drawing on the findings of a major, three-year international research study that looks at the role of prison architects and the effects of carceral design, Professor Yvonne Jewkes will discuss the broad rationales behind current prison expansion and modernization programmes. She will discuss the primary drivers behind design decisions and the extent to which those who commission and construct prisons are attuned to the effects of their decisions on the everyday lives of prisoners and prison staff. Using examples of international best (and worst) practice, Professor Jewkes will reflect on whether architects might take a different approach to designing and building prisons – for example, by taking a lead from the architectural theorist behind Maggie’s Centres (a developing, global cancer care network), who has eschewed the sterile, dehumanising environment of the typical hospital in favour of an ‘architecture of hope’. But are the concepts of a ‘healthy’ or ‘hopeful’ prison realistic or even desirable? And just how far can design creativity be taken in the custodial context?

Professor Yvonne Jewkes joined the School of Applied Social Science at the University of Brighton in January 2016 as Research Professor in Criminology.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7648-designs-on-punishment-the-architecture-of-incarceration-and-the-architecture

Seminar: Maternal Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence and Child Health in India

Venue: Seminar Room, Australia India Institute, The University of Melbourne

Presenters: Dr Jatrana Santosh

Using data from the third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3-2005-2006) on currently married women with at least one child and logistic regression models, this talk examines the little known association between women’s exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) and child health in India.

Associate Professor Jatrana Santosh is a Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7647-seminar-maternal-exposure-to-intimate-partner-violence-and-child-health

Australia in the World

Venue: Carrillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre

Presenters: Ramachandra Guha

India is one of the world’s oldest and most diverse civilisations and the largest democracy in the world. However, freedom of expression for many Indians is increasingly at risk. As the country approaches its 70th year of independence, concerns about liberal freedoms are growing with increasing sedition charges and the steady rise of identity politics.

Hosted by Asialink and the Australia-India Institute, one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals, Ramachandra Guha, will share insights on freedom of expression in a multicultural and secular India, and discuss the challenges for India’s democracy in the years ahead.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7653-australia-in-the-world

The Hunt For the Source of Mutations in Cancer

Venue: Ian Potter Auditorium, Kenneth Myer Building

Presenters: Dr Robyn Lindley

A Story of Discovery and Innovation at the Coalface.

R Douglas Wright Lecture 2016

Dr. Robyn A. Lindley is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She is also an inventor, and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and Director of GMDx Co Pty Ltd. Robyn has morphed into an internationally recognized immunogeneticist who has been publishing on the molecular mechanisms of evolution and somatic hypermutation (SHM) in the immune system for almost two decades. SMH is the cellular mechanism responsible for antibody diversity.

This journey began in 1996 when she joined with ANU Immunologists Edward J Steele and Robert V Blanden as co-authors of Lamarck’s Signature, a best-selling science book that laid out the scientific evidence for antibody diversity and the evolution of immune recognition via reverse transcription-coupled feedback loops. This was followed by a breakthrough paper in 2006 with ANU’s Edward J Steele and Georg F Weiller, that provided the first data-driven evidence for the reverse transcription-based mechanism in antibody producing cells. This was a crucial step for understanding the processes involved in the accumulation of unwanted genetic mutations in somatic cells that may ultimately give rise to cancer. In 2010, she published the highly regarded The Soma, that was a synthesis of evolutionary genetic mechanisms. In the same year, with Edward J Steele, it was shown that the diagnostic strand-biased mutation patterns are the same for mouse antibody genes, and for all human cancers analyzed (in part or in toto). The overwhelming conclusion was that all cancers displayed a similar form of dysregulated error prone somatic hypermutation that is normally tightly edited in normal hypermutating B cells in the immune system.

This research prompted some key questions: “What are the root causes of cancer in humans? and, “How can these be identified?” In mid-2012, Robyn Lindley began to answer these questions by interrogating several public mutation databases. Using her skills in recognizing patterns amongst complex series of numbers she shook off the pre-existing dogma that ‘mutations occur randomly’. She discovered that most mutations in the genes of cancer cells occur in a highly non-random fashion, and that the patterns observed are associated with proteins called deaminases that result in a high level of mutagenesis in cancer cells. Most mutations were found to occur at specific sites, codon-context motif signatures. The processes involved are referred to as Targeted Somatic Mutation (TSM). Realizing the diagnostic and prognostic potential of these findings, she began filing patent applications in late 2012. The first scientific paper describing TSM processes was published in Cancer Genetics in May 2013.Recently in 2016, she published a paper showing that some changes in TSM signatures arising in an individual can be used to predict progression or recurrence in ovarian cancer.

With difficulties funding research, and scientific discoveries that break the rules of long-standing scientific dogma, the journey has not been easy. Yet, in this era of rapid and relatively cheap genome-wide sequencing, Robyn Lindley’s discoveries give straight forward biological meaning to cancer mutation signatures. She will tell this unfolding scientific story of the discovery of the underlying rules governing TSM and the path to funding clinical applications in a way all those interested will understand.

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https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7629-the-hunt-for-the-source-of-mutations-in-cancer