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24oct6:00 pm7:30 pmWhy island nations’ isolation on the climate change threat must end6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: Sydney Ideas

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The people of the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati are already experiencing climate change through their exposure to sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and flooding, which have adverse effects on groundwater supply, sanitation, biodiversity and food production. Due to its small size, low lying topography, and economic marginalisation, Kiribati is extremely vulnerable to climate change, and if they are unable to adjust to climate change, the people of Kiribati face significant challenges.

Despite climate change already causing severe problems for Kiribati, large adaptive measures have barely begun. This is both an environmental and human rights issue, as those who have not been the cause of climate change are forced to cope with the consequences, and often do so without the support of industrialised nations.

This Sydney Ideas event will explore the challenges faced by the people of Kiribati and other vulnerable Pacific Island nations and examine how climate change will exacerbate these issues. The questions that will be explored are: What impact will climate change have on Kiribati’s islands, identity, culture and heritage? How can co-operation between nations in the region be strengthened? What political and legislative actions can be taken in Australia to assist Pacific Island nations in climate change adaptation?

Join us to hear from Anote Tong, former president of Kiribati, and one of the world’s most prominent advocates for global action on climate change for which he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Tong will discuss his climate change advocacy, the role of wealthy industrialised nations such as Australia in climate action and the need for global recognition of the threat that climate change represents for Kiribati and other vulnerable Pacific Island nations.

Keynote Speaker

Anote Tong, former president of Kiribati and climate change activist

Respondents

Professor Rosemary Lyster, University of Sydney Law School

Dr Jennifer Newell, Manager, Pacific and International Collections at the Australian Museum

Chair

Professor David Schlosberg, Sydney Environment Institute

Biographies

Anote Tong is the former president of Kiribati, and one of the world’s most prominent advocates for global action on climate change. He has played a critical role in the United Nations conferences on climate change, especially at COP 21 in Paris. With other Pacific leaders, he played a leading role in changing the Paris climate accord to fix a target of global warming to 1.5 deg. C, arguing that any target greater than that would mean abandoning hope for the low lying atoll nations of the world such as his home of Kiribati. For his courageous international advocacy and awareness-raising, Anote Tong has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. More than most he has brought to the world’s attention the existential threat climate change represents to global security.

Anote Tong is responsible for a range of international initiatives to combat climate change and protect the environment, including the Tarawa Climate Change Conference in November 2010 and the Ambo Declaration, where he oversaw the creation of a 480,250 square kilometre marine park, the largest protected marine area in the world – which was later adopted as a UNESCO World Heritage List site (Phoenix Islands Protected Area, or PIPA). Since leaving office Anote Tong has continued his high-level advocacy on behalf of the Pacific islands, and low-level island nations. Through his efforts, climate change has had resonance throughout the world. Most recently a documentary film about him, called Anote’s Ark, has gained many accolades and awards and was a feature documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in the US in 2018.

Rosemary Lyster is the Professor of Climate and Environmental Law in the University of Sydney Law School. In 2015, Rosemary was appointed by the Victorian government to a three person Independent Review Committee (IRC) to review the state’s Climate Change Act 2010 and make recommendations to place Victoria as a leader on climate change. The government accepted 32 of the IRC’s 33 Recommendations. In the area of Environmental Law, Rosemary specialises in Energy and Climate Law, Climate Disaster Law and Water Law. She has published four books with Cambridge University Press in the area of Energy and Climate Law the latest of which is, Climate Justice and Disaster Law (2015). Rosemary is the Energy and Water Special Editor of the, Environmental and Planning Law Journal, which is the leading environmental law journal in Australia. Her affiliations include the IUCN – The World Conservation Union Commission on Environmental Law, comprising environmental lawyers from around the world, as well as the Commission’s Special Working Groups on Energy and Climate Change, Water and Wetlands, and Forests.

Jennifer Newell has been exploring Pacific history and culture for over 20 years, and is Manager of the Pacific and International Collection at the Australian Museum. Jenny has worked in museums and with Pacific communities in London, New York and Australia. Her research focus has been on relationships between Pacific people, environments and material culture. Her particular focus is on the cultural dimensions of climate change, including Pacific Islander activism and changing relationships to the ocean.

David Schlosberg is Professor of Environmental Politics in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney, and Co-Director of the Sydney Environment Institute. His work focuses on contemporary environmental and environmental justice movements, environment and everyday life, and climate adaptation planning and policy. He is the author of Defining Environmental Justice (Oxford, 2007); co-author of Climate-Challenged Society (Oxford, 2013); and co-editor of both The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society (Oxford 2011), and The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory (Oxford 2016). His current book project is on sustainable materialism, or the environmentalism of everyday life.

Time

(Wednesday) 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Location

Charles Perkins Centre Auditorium

Charles Perkins Centre, John Hopkins Drive, The University of Sydney

Organizer

Sydney Ideassydney.ideas@sydney.edu.au

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24oct6:00 pm7:30 pmSydney Ideas - Visionary realities6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: China Studies Centre

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Visionary realities: documentary cinema in 20th century China

Co-presented with China Studies Centre

From war newsreels to ethnographic documentaries; from labour training films to documentary evidence in courtrooms – for most of the 20th century, documentary films were produced and viewed at much larger scales in China than their fiction counterparts, circulating beyond movie theatres into all arenas of social and political life.

Drawing from her book manuscript, Professor Ying Qian in this lecture offers a brief introduction to China’s evolving documentary tradition, with focus on two examples in particular: a new hybrid genre of artistic documentaries that blurred boundaries between documentary and fiction during the Great Leap Forward, and a set of films made about ethnic minority societies that consolidated ethnic classification and rehearsed state dominance between 1955 and 1965.

This talk approaches documentary cinema as a prism through which to investigate the intertwined histories of media technology, social practice and political contention in China’s 20th century. It reconsiders the nature of cinema and its locations in society.

The speaker:

Dr Ying Qian is an assistant professor in Chinese cinema and media studies at Columbia University and visiting fellow at the China Studies Centre. Her research interests include film and media theories and practices, documentary cinema, and global histories and imaginaries of revolution and post-socialism. She has published widely in academic journals and is currently completing a book entitled Visionary Realities: Documentary Cinema in Revolutionary China, which takes documentary aesthetics and epistemology as a prism to investigate intertwined histories of media practice, industrial modernity and revolutionary politics. She received her PhD from Harvard University, was a postdoctoral fellow at the Australian National University, and has been a filmmaker, critic and film programmer.

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Time

(Wednesday) 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Location

F23 Administration Building Auditorium

Eastern Avenue, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales 2006

Organizer

China Studies CentreE: csc.events@sydney.edu.au T:9114 1109

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24oct6:00 pm7:30 pm2018 Paul Byrne SC Memorial Lecture: Our First Nations People in Custody: A National Disgrace6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: Institute of Criminology, Sydney Law School

Event Details

24 October 2018

Registration Please click here to register
_______________________________________________________________

2018 Paul Byrne SC Memorial Lecture: Our First Nations People in Custody; A National Disgrace

Speaker: Phillip Boulten SC

About the Lecture
Indigenous Australians are imprisoned at arguably the highest rate of imprisonment of any group of people in the world. About a quarter of all Australian prisoners are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. They are about 13 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-indigenous Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 24 times more likely to detained in a juvenile detention centre than non-indigenous children.

These statistics are well known and understood. There have been Royal Commissions, Commissions of Inquiry, numerous reports and investigations. The magnitude of the disparity is manifest – and disgraceful. This year’s Paul Byrne memorial lecture will focus on why this disparity exists and what can be done to ameliorate it.

About the Speaker
Phillip Boulten is a senior criminal barrister practising at the Sydney Bar from Forbes Chambers. He appears in cases at all levels of the criminal justice system, principally in NSW but also in other jurisdictions.
He appeared in the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT as senior counsel for the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency. He is the Chair of the Indigenous Issues Committee of the Australian Bar Association, Co-Chair of the NSW Bar Association’s Working Group on the Over-representation of Indigenous People in Custody and a member of the Law Council’s Criminal Law Committee. He is a past President of the NSW Bar Association and a former member of the executive of the Australian Bar Association.

Previous speakers include:
2017 – Terry O’Gorman
2016 – Stephen Odgers SC
2015 – The Hon Justice Virginia Bell AC
2014 – The Hon. J D Heydon AC QC
2013 – The Hon. M Gleeson AC QC

About Paul Byrne SC
This is the seventh Paul Byrne SC Memorial Lecture honouring Paul Byrne SC, who had a life long interest in criminal law and the criminal justice system, as well being an active participant and generous supporter of the Institute of Criminology at the Sydney Law School. Paul Byrne SC graduated in Arts and Law from the University of Sydney, and worked with the Public Solicitor’s Office as a solicitor. He became a barrister in 1979, and was appointed a public defender. In 1983 he was awarded a Master of Laws degree with First Class Honours, and was awarded a University Medal. He was appointed Director of the Criminal Law Review Division and a Commissioner of the New South Wales Law Reform Commission. In 1995 he took silk and continued an outstanding career as an advocate in courts at all levels.

The Paul Byrne Memorial Fund
The Paul Byrne Memorial Fund has been set up to honour and continue Paul’s interest in the criminal justice system by supporting the ongoing activities of the Institute of Criminology, such as lectures, seminars, publications, and awards. Attendees of the Paul Byrne SC Memorial Lecture are warmly invited to make a donation to The Paul Byrne SC Memorial Fund. Gifts to The Paul Byrne SC Memorial Fund support the activities of the Institute of Criminology and other activities in the field of criminal law at Sydney Law School, in memory of the late Paul Byrne SC.

CPD Points: 1.5

This event is proudly hosted by the Institute of Criminology, Sydney Law School, The University of Sydney, highlighting the Institute’s support of critical criminal justice research, practice, policy and debate.

Time: 6-7.30pm, followed by a cocktail reception

Location: Law Foyer, Level 2, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown, University of Sydney

Cost: Free, however registration is essential. See registration link at top of the page

Contact: Professional Learning & Community Engagement

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Time

(Wednesday) 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Location

Law School Foyer

Level 2, Sydney Law School, Eastern Avenue, The University of Sydney

Organizer

Institute of Criminology, Sydney Law School

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25oct1:00 pm2:30 pmCitizens and the Crash: Political Protest and the Global Financial Crisis in Cross-National Comparison1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Event Organized By: Department of Government & International Relations

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How did the global financial crisis—the greatest economic crisis since the depression of the 1930s—affect trends in political protest? Although the world saw several large mobilizations in response to the crisis, including Occupy Wall Street and the Indignados movement in Spain, we know little about how economic shocks affect protest participation trends more broadly.

Existing approaches to explain protest behaviour lead to competing predictions as to how protest would be affected by a major crisis. According to grievance theories, those most affected by the crisis would be mobilized to participate in protest. Resource approaches, however, suggest that those better off in society, participate more in protest, due to the time, skills and resources required to take part. As more citizens faced material hardship during the crisis, this would lead to the prediction that participation would have declined following the crisis. The political opportunities approach meanwhile, would suggest that government policy responses to the crisis, rather than the crisis in and of itself, would mobilize protest.

To test these different theories in the context of the global financial crisis, the paper examines individual level protest participation data from the World Values Survey in 18 countries, alongside protest event data from the Integrated Crisis Early Warning System (ICEWS). The paper finds that individual level participation declined following the crisis in countries affected to a greater extent, lending support to the resources model. Meanwhile, analysis of protest events demonstrates that there were mobilizations in response to government policy responses to the crisis.

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Dr Sarah Cameron is the Electoral Integrity Project Manager and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. A comparative political scientist, her research examines the relationship between economic conditions and political behaviour, attitudes towards democracy, and electoral integrity. She has contributed to several major studies on elections including the Australian Election Study and the Comparative Cross-National Electoral Research project. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming book, Electoral Integrity in America: Securing Democracy (Oxford University Press, with Pippa Norris and Thomas Wynter).

Time

(Thursday) 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Location

Room 441, Social Sciences Building, A02

Organizer

Department of Government & International Relations

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25oct6:00 pm8:00 pmPolitics in the Pub | THE DECLINE OF THE US - HOW REAL IS IT?6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Event Organized By: Politics in the Pub

29oct9:00 am1:00 amMetropolis Conference | New thinking on migration starts here9:00 am - 1:00 am

Event Details

Join the world’s brightest academic, government and community leaders and practitioners for a week of learning, discussion and debate on migration, diversity and integration. Metropolis will be an intellectually challenging, culturally rewarding opportunity to network and explore the latest thinking and practices in migration policy, research and programs.

Metropolis 2018 – the only gathering of its kind that brings together leaders and experts to discuss migration, diversity and integration.

This year’s event is hosted by a consortium, led by Settlement Services International (SSI), in partnership with Australian Multicultural Foundation (AMF) and Multicultural NSW (MNSW).

Global Migration in Turbulent Times

The theme for this year’s Conference is Global Migration in Turbulent Times; with a focus on the following eight sub-themes:

Enterprise, Innovation and Employment – catalysts for social change?
Migration and Mobility – the dynamic shifts in the Asia-Pacific region
Displacement and asylum – new dimensions driving an old phenomenon
Visible and powerful – migrant voices in a connected world
Conflicting agendas? National, local, regional and global responses to the governance of migration
Religious diversity – a bridge or a barrier to belonging?
Migration and inequality – complex challenges under the microscope
Australia a multicultural paradise – myths and realities

For the first time, the conference will also focus on the impact of migration on First Peoples and will profile the importance of their stories including those of Indigenous Australians.

While the conference runs from Monday to Friday, event hosts SSI has developed a program of events and activities to make your stay in Sydney something to remember. On Saturday 3 November, as part of the Conference Cultural Program, SSI will host The New Beginnings Festival in Spring a celebration of the artistic vibrancy, cultural expressions and heritage of people from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Keep an eye out for more satellite events and activities.

We look forward to welcoming you to Metropolis 2018, Sydney.

Event Cost:

$480-$1955

Time

(Monday) 9:00 am - 1:00 am

Location

International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney)

Darling Harbour, Sydney

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29oct2:00 pm4:00 pmArchive that Comrade!2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Event Organized By: School of Social and Political Sciences

Event Details

Archive that Comrade! Left Memory Politics, Toxic Fame and the Populist Archive

Abstract

‘Don’t mourn- organise’ was a favoured campaign slogan of the old Left, part of its commitment to struggles of long duration against social injustice and a belief in the ultimate triumph of socialism. The past was only useful and remembered, in so far as it contributed lessons for the future. With the advent of identity politics, the importance of memory work, of recording and celebrating hitherto hidden and ignored life histories, has been transvalued as a resource along with a nostalgic tendency in some quarters to mourn the ‘world we have lost’ where working class culture, tied to the labour movement, was a major and progressive political force.

But are the do-it-yourself archival practices of the me-too generation really an effective tool for building a shared sense of culture and community in which feelings of anger and loss can be addressed, so that grief does not have to be sublimated in grievance? How successful has the New Left been in challenging the multi-media apparatus of Fame and Celebrity which has come to dominate the politics of public commemoration? How far can the rise of the Populist Archive designed to communicate ‘positive images’ of maligned minorities, be seen as a response both to the death of the Collective Hero, and as a reaction against the competitive individualism promoted by the Fame Academy?

In this talk I will address these questions by looking at some recent controversies surrounding public memorials , monuments and archives in both the UK and USA and by arguing for an alternative democratic politics of the archive.

About the speaker

Phil Cohen has worked for over 40 years with working class and immigrant communities in the East End of London as they respond to the impact of large scale demographic and socio-economic change linked to globalisation and de-industrialisation. As an urban ethnographer he is specially interested in how political and cultural values are transmitted between generations. Or not.

He is an emeritus at the University of East London and visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies University College London. He is also the co-founder and research director of Livingmaps Network and editor of its on line journal. Amongst his many books are Knuckle sandwich:growing up in the working class city (Penguin 1978) ; Re-thinking the Youth Question (Palgrave 1998) ; Reading Room Only : memoir of a radical bibliophile (Five Leaves 2013) ,Graphologies (Mica Press 2015) and, most recently, Archive That Comrade :Left Legacies and the counter culture of Remembrance (PM Press 2018) . Material Dreams: essays on the unmaking of modernity is forthcoming from Palgrave. Website and blog: www.philcohenworks.com

Time

(Monday) 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Location

Room 341, Social Sciences Building

Science Road, The University of Sydney

Organizer

School of Social and Political Sciences

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30oct6:00 pm7:30 pmWhy climate change law is a hot debate6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: Sydney Ideas

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Australia needs imaginative thinking and ‘hot’ law

We need to think outside the square to catch up with the rest of the world on climate change law.

Historically Australia has led the world in the development of robust environmental laws. And yet, while there have been some notable exceptions, in relation to climate change law, Australia has lagged behind the rest of the world.

In moving forward, any meaningful legal response to governing climate change has three fundamental and interrelated aspects. The first is to take the complex nature of climate change as an environmental problem seriously. Climate change is a classic ‘hot’ situation – it is polycentric, involves scientific predictions, and is a product of socio-political arrangements. Second, as a ‘hot’ situation, it requires the advancement of legal frameworks that respond to the complexity of climate change as a problem.

These frameworks are a form of ‘hot law’ and their development requires the expansion of legal imagination. Numerous examples of this can be seen across the world, including the legal creation of markets and the emergence of new types of legal obligations and rights.

These developments do not occur in isolation and also require integration into the wider legal order. Third, given all of this, there is a need to develop institutional and legal capacity along a range of different dimensions.

The speakers:

Keynote speaker: Professor Liz Fisher is Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Oxford’s Corpus Christi College and Faculty of Law. She researches in the areas of environmental law and administrative law, exploring the interrelationship between law, administration and regulatory problems in different legal cultures. Her 2007 book, Risk Regulation and Administrative Constitutionalism, won the SLS Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship 2008.
Chair: Professor Rosemary Lyster is Professor of Climate and Environmental Law at The University of Sydney Law School. Rosemary is an international leader in the area of Climate Justice and Disaster Law. She published her monograph Climate Justice and Disaster Law with Cambridge University Press in 2016. Her new co-edited book entitled Climate Disaster Law: Barriers and Opportunities was published by Edward Elgar in June 2018. Rosemary has published four other Climate and Environmental Law books with Cambridge University Press and is the lead co-author of Environmental and Planning Law in New South Wales, now in its 4th edition. In 2015 Rosemary was appointed by the Victorian Government to a three-person Independent Review Committee (IRC) to review the state’s Climate Change Act 2010 to place Victoria as a leader on climate change. The government passed its new Climate Change Act in 2017.

Time

(Tuesday) 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Location

Charles Perkins Centre Auditorium

Charles Perkins Centre, John Hopkins Drive, The University of Sydney

Organizer

Sydney Ideassydney.ideas@sydney.edu.au

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31oct6:00 pm7:00 pmAddress by John Micklethwait: The future of journalism6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Event Organized By: Lowy Institute

31oct6:01 pm7:30 pmSYDNEY IDEAS - MEET A LIVING LEGEND: BRUCE BERESFORD6:01 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: Sydney Ideas

Event Details

Bruce Beresford has a career in film spanning 50 years and more than 30 feature films. Not only that, he has been nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Director for Tender Mercies and Best Adapted Screenplay for Breaker Morant. His 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy won the Oscar for Best Picture.

His career began at the University of Sydney, where he studied alongside John Bell, Clive James and Madeleine St John, and acted in the drama society. He directed his first films here, including The Devil to Pay and It Droppeth as the Gentle Rain. Since then, he has gone on to become one of our most prolific and critically acclaimed filmmakers. He has also directed operas and plays, and written for film, making him a legend of the Australian arts scene.

Beresford’s latest venture, released in September 2018, is a film adaptation of Ladies in Black, based on the novel by Madeleine St John, with whom he attended the University of Sydney. With his time spent across continents, and multiple films in the works, he shows no signs of slowing down.

This event will see him in conversation with Dr Bruce Isaacs, Head of Film Studies at the University, to discuss his incredible career, Hollywood, and his philosophy on film.

The University recently charted Bruce Beresford’s extraordinary life journey – from Hollywood to home – in a Sydney Alumni Magazine feature story.

The speakers:

Bruce Beresford: was born in Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1964. Notable films he has directed include Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies and Driving Miss Daisy. Ladies in Black is his latest feature. He served as Film Officer for the British Film Institute Production Board from 1966–71 and as a Film Advisor to the Arts Council of Great Britain. He has also directed several operas, including Girl Of The Golden West (Puccini), Spoleto (Italy) and Elektra (Strauss).
Dr Bruce Isaacs: is Head of Film Studies at University of Sydney. He is interested in a wide range of film studies-related topics: histories of film (with a focus on Hollywood, though he has abiding interests in various ‘New Waves’ and movements), film aesthetics and style, critical approaches to film production, film and popular culture (including the relationship between film and other pop culture art forms such as television, literature and music). He is currently intrigued by various developments in High Concept Hollywood and its evolution of new aesthetic practices, including digital and 3D cinema.

Event details

When:6.00pm – 7.30pm
Where:Please see this page for details.
Cost:Free and open to all with online registrations required
Registration:https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/sydney-ideas-meet-a-living-legend-bruce-beresford-tickets-50110974273
Contact:Sydney Ideas
sydney.ideas@sydney.edu.au

(02) 9351 2943

Time

(Wednesday) 6:01 pm - 7:30 pm

Location

Charles Perkins Centre Auditorium

Charles Perkins Centre, John Hopkins Drive, The University of Sydney

Organizer

Sydney Ideassydney.ideas@sydney.edu.au

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Visionary realities: documentary cinema in 20th century China

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Australia needs imaginative thinking and ‘hot’ law

We need to think outside the square to catch up with the rest of the world on climate change law.

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