At a global level, the people who produce most of the world’s food – smallholder farmers – are also the people who suffer the most food and nutrition insecurity. Why is this so? And what needs to happen to make smallholder agriculture more nutrition-sensitive? In this seminar, three University of Sydney experts from different areas – public health, veterinary science and human geography – review the problem of food and nutrition insecurity among smallholder communities of the developing world. P...
Dec 14, 2016•35 min
Why Don’t we Eat Enough Fruit and Vegetables? This seminar will address the question of why Australians are eating too few fruits and vegetables. National and State governments and NGOs have invested in health promotion programs to increase fruit and vegetable intake over the past couple of decades. However, the most recent national survey shows about half of the Australian population eats their 2 serves of fruit daily but vegetable consumption of 5 serves per day is met by less than 10%. PANEL ...
Dec 14, 2016•44 min
Too much of the world’s food goes to waste. Wasted food represents a burden on our scarce environmental resources that we can scarcely afford, and loss of product that could (indeed, should) be made available for those in need. The three panellists presented different and distinctive perspectives on why we should treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves. PANEL Associate Professor Bill Pritchard (Chair), Human Geographer, School of Geosciences Dr Brian Jones, Faculty of Agriculture and E...
Dec 14, 2016•51 min
Lives versus Livelihoods? fumigants, farmworkers, and biopolitics in California’s strawberry industry 23 November, 2015 There’s been great debate over the years about pesticide use in the production of our fruit and veggies. California’s lucrative strawberry industry has been a clear example of where there have been regulatory battles over the use of chemical fumigants - two, in particular, methyl iodide and chloropicrin. One side of the argument, from the activists, is that they would harm the ...
Dec 14, 2016•1 hr 19 min
In recent years, we have seen an explosion in the number of community organisations that orient themselves around the production and distribution of food. These food justice groups often focus on improving the availability and quality of food in urban environments, on reducing food waste, and on building local economies. How, though, does the “justice” of food justice manifest itself in practice? How do groups articulate, value and embody social and environmental justice concerns? And how is it ...
Dec 14, 2016•1 hr 8 min
Stranded Down Under: Are fossil fuels bankrupting our nation both financially and ecologically? Numerous industrialised nations are taking to reduce their emissions and shift the world's energy system from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Yet Australia is set to invest over AUD 100 billion in new coal mining developments over the next 15 years. Who is footing the bill for these projects in Australia? All Australians are, through compulsory superannuation schemes that invest in the expansion of ...
Dec 09, 2016•1 hr 17 min
Tom Szaky dropped out of Princeton University to found TerraCycle, a company that started by selling an organic fertiliser for plants made from worm poo in reused soft drink bottles. Today his company collects and recycles over 100 different kinds of products that were considered 'non-recyclable' garbage, in over 24 different countries. TerraCycle has been called the “Google of Garbage” by the New York Times and the “the coolest little start-up in America” by Inc. Magazine. Tom's first book was ...
Dec 09, 2016•1 hr 31 min
Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20 In the lead up to the OECD G20 Leaders Summit to be held in Brisbane in November in 2014 we we were delighted to welcome Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20, to the University of Sydney. In her exclusive presentation for Sydney Ideas she underlined the economic dimension and imperative (beyond the moral and fairness issue) of reducing the gender gap and enhancing the role of women in economies and societies at large....
Dec 09, 2016•1 hr 11 min
An Arts Matters Forum - Why Feminism Matters Compared with 30 years ago women are now better represented in politics but there is still more to be done. Hillary Clinton and Julia Gillard are examples of women gaining important leadership positions, but not the top job. So how far have women come in terms of political leadership and shaping the public policy agenda? Do men and women do politics differently? Do women have different interests to men and how should these be incorporated into politic...
Dec 09, 2016•1 hr 35 min
BAFTA and MOBO award-winning UK hip hop artist and writer Akala joins a panel of local hip hop artists, students and activists to talk about the evolution of socially conscious hip hop music, and its inspiration for a new generation of artists and activists. 'Community Empowerment' Chair: Frank Trotman-Golden (Indij Hip Hop Show) Panellists: Professor Juanita Sherwood, Academic Director of the National Centre for Cultural Competence at the University of Sydney Akala, BAFTA and MOBO award winning...
Dec 09, 2016•38 min
BAFTA and MOBO award-winning UK hip hop artist and writer Akala joins a panel of local hip hop artists, students and activists to talk about the evolution of socially conscious hip hop music, and its inspiration for a new generation of artists and activists. After an acknowldegment of Country by DOBBY, and an introduction by Uncle Ken Canning and Dr Omid Tofighian the first panel discuss 'Race Consciousness and Hip Hop'. Chair: Frank Trotman-Golden (Indij Hip Hop Show) Panel: Kaiya Aboagye, PhD ...
Dec 09, 2016•39 min
If a Climate Emergency is Possible, is Everything Permitted? Professor Stephen Gardiner, Professor of Philosophy and Ben Rabinowitz Endowed Professor of Human Dimensions of the Environment, University of Washington In the face of escalating climate change, some scientists are pushing for a serious research program on a dramatic global ‘techno-fix’: the injection of sulphate particles into the stratosphere to block incoming sunlight. This approach to geoengineering - roughly, the ‘intentional man...
Dec 08, 2016•1 hr 32 min
One of America’s leading political scientists, Peter Katzenstein, is particularly interested in the relevance of cultural categories for the analysis of world politics. In his lecture for Sydney Ideas he offered a critique of the Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilization theory that conflict between distinct groups based on religion and cultural identities (eg Western, Islamic, Sinic) is inevitable, and will dominate in the post cold–war period. The emphasis on the unity and uniformity of differ...
Dec 08, 2016•1 hr 8 min
Loretta Napoleoni is an expert on financing of terrorism and advises governments and international organization on counter-terrorism. In her lecture for Sydney Ideas she outlines how the response of George Bush to 9/11 triggered a chain of events which led to the credit crunch and to the current crisis of the Euro. A Sydney Ideas event on 30 August, 2010 sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2010/loretta_napoleoni.shtml
Dec 08, 2016•1 hr 19 min
Professor Esther M Sternberg MD and Professor Ian Hickie AM How do the emotions affect our physical and mental health? What is the science that shows how brain and body interact to make us sick or well? Two of the world’s leading researchers exposed and explored the pathways within the brain through which our emotions connect with our bodies. Professor Sternberg presented the results of her decades of research showing how nerves, molecules, and hormones connect the brain and immune system, how t...
Dec 08, 2016•1 hr 26 min
Michael Oppenheimer was the Lead Author on the Third and Fourth Assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His scientific understanding of global warming provides a framework for developing response policies at the local, national and international levels. Oppenheimer reviews this evidence in order to present a framework for policies to mitigate emissions and adapt to some level of inevitable warming. He also discuss changes in the relations among nations in the ...
Dec 08, 2016•1 hr 37 min
Paul Gilding argues that we have entered a period of global ecological crisis and economic stagnation that will last for decades. This will lead to an economic and social transformation of significance in the history of humanity. Paul Gilding has been an activist and social entrepreneur for 35 years, his personal mission is to lead, inspire and motivate action globally on the transition of society and the economy to sustainability. A Sydney Ideas talk on 29 April, 2009 http://sydney.edu.au/sydne...
Dec 08, 2016•1 hr 21 min
Maude Barlow is a Canadian activist and author who travels the world telling a simple and compelling truth: we are running out of water. And with that, comes devastating consequences. The author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right of Water explains the phenomena of “hot stains”, where large areas of the earth’s surface are running out of clean, drinkable water and describes this as “the most important ecological and human threat of our time.” Barlow is i...
Dec 08, 2016•1 hr 33 min
Environmental laws as presently conceived are incapable of addressing the fundamental challenges of the 21st Century such as climate change and the degradation of ecosystems. Cormac Cullinan makes the the case for an eco-centric approach to law and governance and explore the potential of Earth Jurisprudence and wild law to radically reshape law and society as we know it. He explores the implications of the rapidly emerging global movement for the rights of nature and the potential to use Earth r...
Dec 08, 2016•1 hr 26 min
Ordinary atoms that make up the visible universe, from the smallest molecules to planets and stars, constitute only 5% of all matter and energy in the cosmos. The remaining 95% is invisible, and comprises two mysterious components commonly dubbed dark matter and dark energy. In this talk Professor Manfred Lindner (Director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics and a professor at the faculty for physics and astronomy of Heidelberg University, Germany) reviews what we currently know abou...
Nov 29, 2016•1 hr 5 min
The Mexican Revolution (1910–20) gave birth to a radical regime which, during the 1920s and 1930s, innovated in terms of state-building, social reform, and cultural policy, thus becoming a magnet for foreign journalists and intellectual tourists. But while American cultural commentators (John Reed, Frank Tannenbaum, Carleton Beals and others) were often sympathetic, the British – D H Lawrence, Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, and Malcolm Lowry – were highly critical. This talk by Prof...
Nov 29, 2016•1 hr 36 min
Professor Rajesh Thakker FRS FMedSci from the University of Oxford delivers a lecture in the 21st Century Medicine series of public lectures.
Nov 24, 2016•1 hr 2 min
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprise 27% of the prison population but represent only 3 % of the Australian population. Justice health professionals often grapple with providing culturally competent care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody. However these clinical challenges cannot be viewed in isolation without interrogating broader organisational, societal and political structures and attitudes. Efforts to reduce Indigenous prison numbers and provide meani...
Nov 24, 2016•1 hr 3 min
The educational landscape today is marked by numerous texts for teachers that identify ‘what works’ in the classroom and ‘best practices’ for bolstering student achievement in different subjects. Although these guides may provide valuable information for educators, they frequently ignore a central imperative of critical studies in education to situate educational knowledge within the contexts in which it is produced. This lecture by Professor Frances Vavrus (Program in Comparative and Internatio...
Nov 16, 2016•1 hr 13 min
For our 2016 Chaser lecture we bring you Indonesia’s first female Muslim stand-up comedian and freedom of expression advocate, Sakdiyah Ma’ruf (winner of the 2015 Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent). In conversation with Julian Morrow from The Chaser, Sakdiyah talks comedy, religion and where to draw the line. MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Sakdiyah Ma‘ruf is a standup comedian based in Jakarta who has become known in her country and around the world as one of the most distinctive voices of Indone...
Nov 15, 2016•1 hr 22 min
Australian of the Year David Morrison AO leads a panel of researchers, students and academics in this topical debate. Some of the questions they explore include: - Is this model of change the key to accelerating gender equality? Or are we just perpetuating a traditional male power-based, approach to the issue of gender equality? - Why are we failing to have the important public debate about the role of men in caregiving which many believe is critical to achieving true gender equality? For decade...
Nov 02, 2016•1 hr 29 min
Professor Corinna Hawkes, Director of the Centre for Food Policy, City University London The keynote lecture in the Food Governance Conference hosted by Sydney Law School and the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney ABSTRACT Everybody eats. Food is a lived experience. It inspires us, fills us with dread, brings us joy, and stress. It sustains us, and kills us. At the same time, food is distant, hails from the food system, out there, somewhere, causing “abstract” problems. Drought. ...
Nov 01, 2016•1 hr 30 min
A forum held as part of the University of Sydney Innovation Week 2016. How can today’s research inform tomorrow’s public policy, drive technological innovation and inspire our creative sectors? For this special forum we brought together diverse voices from the fields of biology, politics, food security and energy production, and ask them to project into the future. What does their research tell us about the possibilities for our world in 25 years? Will the obesity epidemic reach a tipping point ...
Oct 28, 2016•1 hr 14 min
Carolyne Larrington, Professor of Medieval European Literature at the University of Oxford, talks about watching and writing about HBO’s Game of Thrones as a medieval scholar. She explains some of the medieval history and literature from which George R. R. Martin chiselled the building blocks for the construction of his imaginary world. Game of Thrones has now become the most frequently streamed or downloaded show in TV history. Carolyne suggests some reasons for its enormous international succe...
Oct 26, 2016•59 min
We've created a world where information technology permeates our economies, social interactions, and intimate selves. The combination of mobile, cloud computing, the Internet Things, persistent computing, and autonomy are resulting in something different. This World-Sized Web promises great benefits, but is also vulnerable to a host of new threats. Threats from users, criminals, corporations, and governments. Threats that can now result in physical damage and even death. Security technologist Br...
Oct 20, 2016•59 min
