Professor Frank Pasquale, an expert on the law of artificial intelligence, algorithms and machine learning, proposes solution to questions over some aspects of algorithmic ordering of information.

Event details

Event type: Lecture
Date: Wednesday 15 August 2018
Time: 6 – 7.30pm
Venue: Carslaw Lecture Theatre 157 (F07), Eastern Avenue, University of Sydney (close to City Road entrance)
Cost: Free and open to all with online registrations required
Register for this event

Please note: while there is parking available at New Law School carpark, Shepherd St carpark behind the Seymour Centre, at Broadway and some street parking just off the City Road, spaces are limited so we suggest using public transport whenever possible.

Software uses algorithms to solve complex calculations and problems in seconds, in many contexts, from search engine results to credit scores.

However, the rapid rise of big data and predictive analytics in media and finance has provoked alarm and questions over some aspects of algorithmic ordering of information. Academics, activists, journalists and legal experts have identified three major problems.

The data used may be inaccurate or inappropriate.
Algorithmic modelling may be biased or limited.
The uses of algorithms are still opaque in many critical sectors.

Policymakers need to address each of these problems, but face two significant obstacles. First, how can regulators apply expert judgment given rapidly changing technology and business practices? Second, when is human review essential – and when will controversies over one algorithmic ordering merely result in a second computational analysis of a contested matter?

In this talk Professor Frank Pasquale proposes reforms essential to humane automation of new media and banking. He focuses on recent controversies over the ‘right to be forgotten’ and alternative credit scoring (such as proposals to base loan approvals on qualities of the applicant’s social network contacts).

The Speaker:

Frank Pasquale is a professor of law at the University of Maryland and an expert on the law of artificial intelligence, algorithms and machine learning. His work covers the ethical, legal and social implications of information technology, and he frequently advises attorneys, health professionals and government officials. He is a leader of the global movement for algorithmic accountability.

This event is supported by the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC) and the Post Truth Initiative.

Time

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

Location

Carslaw Lecture Theatre 157

University of Sydney

Organizer

Sydney Ideassydney.ideas@sydney.edu.au

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15aug6:30 pm8:00 pmETHICS TASTER6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Event Organized By: The Ethics Centre

Event Details

Think ethics is just for philosophers and intellectuals? Well you’d better think again.

Ethics is all about being human. Our individual approaches to ethics shape who we are, what we do and the world that we create through our choices. We think and act according to our ethics ALL the time – whether we’re conscious of it or not.

Our Ethics Taster will break ethics down for you, without the complex philosophical jargon. Using pop culture, TV, films and life examples as explainers, we’ll introduce you to the wonderful world of ethics.

You’ll learn about different ways of ethical thinking and how they relate to your own decision making. You’ll leave with new ways to approach sticky situations and everyday decisions. And you’ll learn to understand other people better too!

So sit back with some wine and cheese and explore a taste of ethics in the company of our resident ethicist Dr Matthew Beard.

Tickets are strictly limited.

If professional ethics is more your focus – that is, how to better live your values within your organisation or profession – please take a look at out our professional ethics workshop – Ethics at Work.

SPEAKERS

Dr Matthew Beard is a Fellow at The Ethics Centre. He received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame Australia for research in military ethics. Matt has published a number of papers in academic journals and books on a variety of topics including military ethics, moral injury and PTSD, cyberwar, torture, and medical ethics.

He’s a media regular, having appeared in print, radio and TV discussing ethical issues from vampires to anti-vaccination and Ashley Madison for The Guardian, ABC, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Daily Telegraph. Matt is also a columnist with The Conversation.

Time

(Wednesday) 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Location

THE ETHICS CENTRE

LEVEL 1, LEGION HOUSE 161 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW AUSTRALIA

Organizer

The Ethics Centre

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16aug1:00 pm5:00 pmETHICS AT WORK - SYDNEY1:00 pm - 5:00 pm Event Organized By: The Ethics Centre

Event Details

In today’s hyper-connected world, people are expected to make split-second decisions. The experience of being drawn in multiple directions has become part of everyday decision making. Not many people feel comfortable negotiating this complexity.

Ethics At Work is a half-day professional training workshop that will equip you with the tools to identify and resolve complex ethical dilemmas. Using practical scenarios and group exercises, you will explore your own personal and organisational objectives and values, the pressures that work against good choices, different decision making styles and how they can be applied to ethical issues.

At a personal level, ethical reflection helps us to make responsible decisions, allows us to be consistent in our judgements, provide reasons for our beliefs and to critically examine opinions. Within an organisational context, ethics play a vital role in risk management, in building skilled and collaborative teams, driving innovation and building trust externally and externally.

Learning Outcomes

Our program is designed to build your ability to:

identify and discuss ethical issues
apply ethical problem solving and decision making processes to complex issues and dilemmas
demonstrate ethical leadership
identify and manage conflicts of interest
recognise alternative perspectives
use the language of values and principles in resolving dilemmas and conflicts

Upon completion of Ethics At Work, you will receive a certificate of achievement from The Ethics Centre.

Who is it for?

Ethics At Work will appeal to a wide range of people. Whether you’re a manager wanting to build skills in ethical leadership and developing open, speak-up cultures among your team; a professional wanting to better deal with complex issues and make good decisions; or someone that faces tough client or stakeholder dilemmas or conflicts of interest, you’ll leave the session equipped with the means to work through difficult and often distressing issues and build comprehensive skills in ethical decision making.

The program is limited to 25 people per workshop.

What makes this course special?

We believe in an experiential learning approach. In exploring real life scenarios through reading, writing, discussion and group problem solving, it opens the space for self-analysis and high impact engagement with course content. This approach means that you not only retain the information, but enjoy the process of learning it. With small groups, it offers the opportunity to build a network of like-minded professionals to practice learnings from the program going forward.

Course Costs

$500 / Person
$400 / The Ethics Centre Member
$400 / Person when 3 or more people book from the same organisation
$300 / The Ethics Centre Corporate Member

NOTE: To purchase discounted tickets, please contact us on +61 2 8267 5746, or email advice@ethics.org.au.

Find out more about becoming a Member of The Ethics Centre. Please contact advice@ethics.org.au if you have any questions about Ethics At Work.

The Ethics Centre

The Ethics Centre has been working with organisations in Australia and overseas for over 25 years. We help organisations respond more effectively to conditions of complexity and uncertainty by placing ethics at the centre of an organisation’s success. The Centre is recognised nationally as a leader in ethics consulting, training and counselling.

Facilitator: David Burfoot

David Burfoot has worked in the not-for-profit, public and private sectors domestically and internationally for organisations as diverse as the United Nations Development Program, Deloitte, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption and Sydney University. He has been an anti-corruption specialist with a number of government agencies and held senior positions responsible for corporate planning, change and internal communications. He enjoys discovering the unique qualities of organisations and using his skills and experience to help them realise their ethical potential.

Case Study

The company which you are working for is about to be restructured. Everyone knows that there will be a number of redundancies. You work for the Director of HR. One day at lunch, a colleague mentions that her boss is about to take on a heavy debt in order buy a new house. She told her that she needs the space as she is expecting her third child in a few months’ time. You recognise her name as someone identified for retrenchment.

What should you do?

Time

(Thursday) 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Location

THE ETHICS CENTRE

LEVEL 1, LEGION HOUSE 161 CASTLEREAGH STREET SYDNEY NSW AUSTRALIA

Organizer

The Ethics Centre

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17aug3:00 pm5:30 pmThe Moral Economy of Mobile Phones Symposium and Book Launch3:00 pm - 5:30 pm Event Organized By: Media@Sydney

Event Details

The rapid uptake of mobile phones in the Pacific Islands over the last ten years has created a complicated moral economy. We understand the moral economy of mobile phones to imply a field of shifting relations among consumers, companies and state actors, all of whom have their own ideas about what is good, fair and just. These ideas inform the ways in which, for example, consumers acquire and use mobile phones; companies promote and sell voice, SMS and data subscriptions; and state actors regulate both everyday use of mobile phones and market activity around mobile phones. Ambivalence and disagreement about who owes what to whom is thus an integral feature of the moral economy of mobile phones.

This symposium reports on research in Fiji and Papua New Guinea funded by the Australian Research Council, including two documentary films. It concludes with a book launch for The Moral Economy of Mobile Phones: Pacific Perspectives, an edited volume published in May 2018 by the Australian National University Press and is available for free download here.

Confirmed presenters include: Heather A. Horst (University of Sydney), Robert J. Foster (University of Rochester), Lucas Watt (RMIT University), Wendy Bai Magea-Vavari (University of Goroka), Romitesh Kant (University of South Pacific/LaTrobe University), and luke gaspard (University of Sydney). The Moral Economy of Mobile Phones: Pacific Perspectives will be launched by Professor Gerard Goggin (University of Sydney).

Time

(Friday) 3:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Location

Room S226, Level 2 John Woolley Building (A20)

The University Of Sydney, Manning Road, Camperdown NSW 2006

Organizer

Media@Sydneyjolynna.sinanan@sydney.edu.au

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20aug1:00 pm2:00 pmNeoliberal urbanisation, corruption and the corporate state in Latin America1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Event Organized By: School of Social and Political Sciences

Event Details

Abstract:

In December 2016 a US District Court in New York fined the global Brazilian construction company Odebrecht $3.5 billion under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for bribing politicians and officials in 12 Latin American countries to secure 100 construction contracts. This paper argues that this infrastructure related corruption has become a feature of the new corporate state in Latin America generated by a project-led neoliberal development model.

From the 1980s political and economic liberalization in Latin America saw the rescaling of the state and the support for the decentralization of government and regional and urban competitive development. The corporate state form in Latin America has emerged out of state partnerships with business and security providers to help manage the problems of extreme inequality, high levels of violence and uneven governance. Market and security logics have merged to produce distinct spatial regimes (Brenner’s ‘new state spaces’) designed to attract investment through project-led development strategies. The transient coalitions of politicians, corporations and financiers that formed around project-led development generated a corporate state form, one which has been exposed as highly vulnerable to corruption and has penetrated the judiciary and electoral politics at all levels. The corporate state oscillates between capture and franchising, eroding any meaning of citizenship. The paper looks at the trajectory of project-led urban development projects (especially the cable car) in Colombia and Brazil to sketch the contours of the emerging corporate state.

About the speaker:

Michael Humphrey‘s research interests have focused on large scale social change and the governability of social life. This has been strongly framed by the impact of globalization on the relationship and connections between societies in the North and South. The themes of his research have included international migration, refugees, multiculturalism, community, the city, war, terrorism, law, human rights and transnational governance. The major areas of my research have been in 2 areas: ‘Islam in the West’ and ‘Political Violence and Social Healing’.

Time

(Monday) 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Location

RC Mills Room 148

University of Sydney

Organizer

School of Social and Political Sciences

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21aug12:30 pm2:00 pmWHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE US-AUSTRALIA ALLIANCE?12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Event Organized By: The US Studies Centre

Event Details

Since 1951, the US-Australia alliance has been a bedrock of Australian foreign policy. Republican and Democratic presidents have consistently described Australia as one of the United States’ most valuable allies, not least because Australia is the only country to have fought alongside the United States in every major war since World War I.

The Trump Presidency has spurred renewed focus on an alliance that has been reinvigorated by the launch of the Friends of Australia Caucus in Congress and the ‘100 years of mateship’ campaign. But the alliance also faces increased scrutiny due to a challenging security outlook in Australia’s Indo-Pacific region and debate within the United States about the costs of sustaining global leadership.

Join four Fulbright Scholars for a discussion on the future of the alliance, with ample time for Q&A with panelists. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions about the Fulbright Scholarship program. Pizza will be provided.

The event will be jointly presented by the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and the Australian-American Fulbright Commission.

Featuring

Associate Professor Brendon O’Connor

Postgraduate Coordinator and Associate Professor in American Politics, United States Studies Centre (jointly appointed with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney)

Brendon O’Connor is jointly appointed between the US Studies Centre and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney as an Associate Professor in American Politics. He was a Fulbright Fellow at Georgetown University in 2006, a Visiting Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC in 2008 and 2015, and life member of Clare Hall at University of Cambridge. He is the editor of seven books on anti-Americanism and has also published articles and books on American welfare policy, presidential politics, US foreign policy and Australian-American relations.
Clare O’Neill

Royal Australian Engineer, Office of the Chief of Army

Clare O’Neill is a Royal Australian Engineer currently serving in the Office of the Chief of Army. Clare has experience in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Republic of Korea and Papua New Guinea. She has been the Chief of Army Scholar and a Fulbright Scholar at Georgetown University, and member of the Australian Command and Staff College Art of War program. Clare is the Founder of Grounded Curiosity, Defence Entrepreneurs Forum Australia and Postern Association, and member of the Australian American Young Leadership Dialogue and Military Writers Guild. Clare is a Chartered Professional Engineer with Master of Arts in International Relations, and Master of Military and Defence Studies.
Marvin Alfaro

Foreign Service Officer, US Department of State

Marvin Alfaro is a Foreign Service Officer employed by the US Department State. He was a 2011 US Fulbright Scholar to Australia, awarded a CSIRO Fulbright grant, working with oceanographers at UNSW Sydney and CSIRO Hobart.
Dougal Robinson

Non-Resident Fellow, United States Studies Centre

Dougal Robinson is a Non-Resident Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program, based in Washington DC. He is also a Masters candidate in Strategic Studies and International Economics at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he is a Fulbright Scholar.

Time

(Tuesday) 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

Location

Refectory, Level 5, Abercrombie Business School, University of Sydney

Abercrombie Business School, University of Sydney

Organizer

The US Studies Centre

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21aug6:00 pm7:30 pmDo we have a right to psychological privacy?6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: Sydney Ideas

Event Details

This Sydney Ideas event will explore the notion of psychological privacy in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal – do we need a new right not to be “known” by our data?

Event details

Event type: Panel
Date: Tuesday 21 August 2018
Time: 6 – 7.30pm
Venue: Carslaw Lecture Theatre 157, Eastern Avenue (next to the New Law Building, either University Ave or City Rd Entrance)
Cost: Free and open to all with online registrations required
Register for this event

Please note: while there is some parking available at New Law Building carpark, Shepherd Street carpark, Broadway and some street parking, spaces are limited so we suggest using public transport whenever possible.

Earlier this year news broke that Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm with links to the Brexit referendum and the Trump presidential campaigns, accessed the profiles of almost 100 million Facebook users to influence the outcome of the US election. In the ensuing investigation, it was reported that psychometric analysis used by firms like Cambridge Analytica can correctly predict skin colour (with 95-percent accuracy), sexual orientation (88-percent accuracy), and political affiliation (85 percent accuracy) on the basis of as little as 68 Facebook likes. The more data available, the more a subject is ‘known’, allowing fine targeting of political messaging designed to exploit psychological vulnerabilities.

In an environment where everything we do leaves digital traces – every purchase, every Google search, every movement we make when our mobile phone is in our pocket, every ‘like’ – policy makers are now asking whether we have a right to psychological privacy. A right not to be known by our digital data – or at least to choose who knows us and how they can use that knowledge.

This issue raises questions about whether the threat posed by psychometric analysis of big data poses any new or special risks, and if so, the nature of those risks and what we might do to protect them, without sacrificing the benefits of being known. This panel of experts will discuss this question and some options for the future of data privacy in Australia.

The Speakers

Mia Garlick, Director of Policy Australia and New Zealand. Mia manages policy for Facebook in Australia and New Zealand and works with government, child safety and other stakeholders to promote greater awareness about Facebook’s policies and products. Prior to joining Facebook, Mia was the Assistant Secretary for Digital Economy and Convergence Strategy at the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy during which time she served on the Government 2.0 Taskforce, which advised the Government on how best to engage on social media and adopt a more open data policy. Mia joined the Department after working in Silicon Valley as the Product Counsel for YouTube and, prior to this, the General Counsel for the non-profit Creative Commons. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Law from the University of New South Wales and a Masters of Law from Stanford University.
Sophie Farthing, Senior Adviser (a/g) to the Australian Human Rights Commissioner and leader of the AHRC’s Human Rights and Technology Project.
Peter Leonard is a Sydney-based data and technology business lawyer. He has worked as a legal and commercial adviser to global and Asia Pacific data, communications and technology businesses for more than 30 years. Peter is contributing editor of Communications Law and Policy in Australia, the leading Australian looseleaf service in communications and media law. He chairs the Australian IoT (Internet of Things) Alliance’s Data Access and Use workstream, the Law Society of New South Wales Privacy and Data Law Committee and the Australian Computer Society’s Artificial Intelligence and Ethics Technical Committee. He also serves on the Law Council of Australia’s Information Integrity Taskforce.
Moderated by: Sascha Callaghan, a lawyer and lecturer in neurolaw at the University of Sydney Law School. She has published widely in the area of health care decision-making, mental health and cognitive impairment. She also has a research interest in law and technology is currently a lead researcher in the Sydney Neuroscience Network on intersections between neuroscience, law and ethics.

Time

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

Location

Carslaw Lecture Theatre 157

University of Sydney

Organizer

Sydney Ideassydney.ideas@sydney.edu.au

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22aug6:00 pm7:30 pmTRUTH DECAY: EXPLORING THE DIMINISHING ROLE OF FACTS AND ANALYSIS6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: The US Studies Centre

Event Details

There is increasing disagreement about facts and analytical interpretations of facts in both Australia and the United States. While this trend is not unprecedented in history, the level of disagreement over objective facts and the declining trust in formerly respected sources of facts is a new phenomenon.

The non-partisan RAND Corporation is currently studying “truth decay” — the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life.

RAND’s President and CEO Michael Rich – whose report on truth decay was on former US President Barack Obama’s summer reading list – will join United States Studies Centre CEO Professor Simon Jackman, the ABC’s John Barron and one of the leaders of the University of Sydney’s Post Truth Initiative, Nick Enfield for a panel looking at truth decay.

This event is jointly presented by the USSC and RAND Australia

Featuring

Michael D. Rich

Michael D. Rich is president and chief executive officer of the RAND Corporation.
Professor Simon Jackman

Chief Executive Officer, United States Studies Centre

Simon Jackman commenced as CEO of the US Studies Centre in April 2016. He was previously a Professor of Political Science and Statistics at Stanford University. Jackman’s teaching and research centres on public opinion, election campaigns, political participation, and electoral systems with special emphasis on American and Australian politics.
John Barron

Honorary Associate, United States Studies Centre

John Barron is an Honorary Associate at the US Studies Centre, anchor of “Planet America” on ABC-TV and author of the book “Vote For Me” about the 2008 Presidential campaign. He has produced political documentary films including “First Stop Iowa” about the history of the Democratic Party primary process and “The Party of Reagan” about the disputed legacy of a conservative icon – a film which was made with the assistance of the US Studies Centre.
Nick Enfield

Professor Nick Enfield is professor of linguistics at the University of Sydney and director of the Sydney Social Science and Humanities Advanced Research Centre. He is head of a Research Excellence Initiative on The Crisis of Post-Truth Discourse.

Time

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

Location

Refectory, Level 5, Abercrombie Business School, University of Sydney

Abercrombie Business School, University of Sydney

Organizer

The US Studies Centre

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23aug6:00 pm7:30 pmHumanNature Series: ‘American Dreaming is Indigenous Elimination’6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: Sydney Environment Institute

Event Details

Join Kim TallBear as she considers the strange intersections between nature, nation, and the lives and deaths of Indigenous peoples in the USA.

TallBear reviews the narratives of nature—especially a sharp division between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’— that have been central to building and maintaining US empire, portraying Natives as the less-evolved children of nature in need of elimination through massacre or assimilation. Narratives of American exceptionalism also drive dominant stories the US tells about itself. These narratives justify commanding “natural resources”— not only Indigenous lands and waters, but also Indigenous biologicals and the bodies of our nonhuman relatives.

These narratives of nature and nation continue to justify nation-building visions across the American political spectrum. In this talk, TallBear highlights how American dreaming in any form, including anti-racist moves of the present, are irredeemably co-constituted with the doctrine of inevitable Indigenous elimination.

Kim TallBear is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta, and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Environment.

About the Series

From climate change and the sixth mass extinction event, to the pronouncement of a new geological epoch—the ‘Anthropocene,’ the age of humanity—we are increasingly being told that our contemporary period is one of incredible environmental change, and at the same time that human activity is playing an increasingly significant role in shaping the earth and its future possibilities.

In addition to being important scientific and technical challenges, these environmental problems are also profoundly and inescapably social: they are about how we organise our societies and our cities, how we approach questions of ethics and justice, how we find meaning and value in the world. In other words, they concern the deepest dimensions of our human nature, and in so doing perhaps call out for a reconsideration of what it might mean to be human in times like these.

Taking up these important themes, this lecture series will offer a series of talks by leading international scholars in the Environmental Humanities. This emerging, interdisciplinary, field of scholarship draws on the insights of history, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and related disciplines to explore the important roles that the humanities might play in addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our day.

The inaugural, 2018, series includes nine esteemed international and domestic speakers. There is one lecture scheduled each month from February through to October. Further information on each of these speakers and their lecture topics is provided below.

Series Partners

This Lecture Series is jointly funded and coordinated by the Australian Museum, the University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, Western Sydney University, and the University of Sydney. The organising committee for the series is comprised of Thom van Dooren and Astrida Neimanis (Sydney), Emily O’Gorman (Macquarie), Judy Motion (UNSW), and Juan Francisco Salazar (Western Sydney).

Tickets

Tickets for lectures in this series are available to staff and students at partner universities at the reduced rate of $8. Tickets must be purchased in advance online. Please click on “Enter Promotional Code” to apply the discount.

Promotional Code: ENVHUM18

Website: https://australianmuseum.net.au/landing/human-nature

6:00 – 6:30 Welcome, drinks and refreshments
6:30 – 7:30 Lecture

Time

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

Location

Hallstrom Theatre

Australian Museum, 1 William St, Sydney

Organizer

Sydney Environment Institutemichelle.stanne@sydney.edu.au

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24aug3:00 pm4:30 pmGatewatching and News Curation: Journalism and Social Media – Professor Axel Bruns, University of Queensland3:00 pm - 4:30 pm Event Organized By: Media@Sydney

Event Details

Social media users now engage almost instinctively in collective and collaborative gatewatching processes as they respond to major breaking news stories, as well as in their day-to- day sharing of interesting articles with their social media contacts. Meanwhile, existing media outlets are increasingly seeking to maximise the shareability of their sto ries via social media, and a number of new players are fundamentally built around providing ‘viral’ content. This talk shows how this impacts on news industry practices and approaches. It reviews the practices of everyday users as they engage with the news, and highlights how enterprising journalists have come to connect and engage with such users. It traces the conflicted responses of journalists and news outlets from their early dismissals to gradual engagement with social media, and asks whether, as journalism is subsumed into social media, news outlets can remain distinctive enough to survive.

Prof. Axel Bruns is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Professor in the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. He is the author of Gatewatching and News Curation: Journalism, Social Media, and the Public Sphere (2018), Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage (2008), and Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production (2005), and a co -editor of the Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics (2016), Twitter and Society(2014), A Companion to New Media Dynamics (2012), and Uses of Blogs (2006). His current work focusses on the study of user participation in social media spaces such as Twitter, and its implications for our understanding of the contemporary public sphere, drawing especially on innovative new methods for analysing ‘big social data’.

See Axel’s research blog here and he tweets at @snurb_dot_info. More details on his research into social media can be found here.

Time

(Friday) 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Location

Room S226, Level 2 John Woolley Building (A20)

The University Of Sydney, Manning Road, Camperdown NSW 2006

Organizer

Media@Sydneyjolynna.sinanan@sydney.edu.au

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27aug6:00 pm7:30 pmBeing Collected: insights into repatriation6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Event Organized By: Sydney Ideas

Event Details

Assistant Curator, Indigenous Heritage, Matt Poll, brings together Aboriginal people working in community, museum and Government sectors to reflect on their experiences.

Event details

Event type: Panel
Date: Monday 27 August 2018
Time: 6 – 7.30pm
Venue: General Lecture Theatre (A14), The Quadrangle, University of Sydney
Cost: Free and open to all with online registrations required
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Repatriation is often centred on the return of material immorally acquired such as human remains and sacred objects. Over the last 25 years museums across Australia have proactively engaged with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for the return and future management of material collections. The return to Country often involves complex, private discussion and negotiation around logistical issues.

Repatriation has also led to museums increasing their involvement in returning and sharing collections to their custodians, such as the return of copyright to a family or community for artworks retained by the institution. Such programs frequently bring new engagements and ideas to museums and facilitate better and more culturally attuned access for custodians to their collections within the museum.

Behind the scenes of the good news stories of repatriation are a network of community elders and project workers who facilitate the logistics of returning cultural property on a case-by-case basis. This panel discussion facilitated by the University’s Assistant Curator, Indigenous Heritage, Matt Poll, brings together Aboriginal people working in community, museum and Government sectors to reflect on their experiences.

The Speakers:

Marcus Hughes
Head of Indigenous Engagement and Strategy
Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences
Barrina South
Senior Team Leader
Regional Heritage Operations
South East Region, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Shaun Angeles
Artwe-kenhe (Men’s) Collection Researcher
The Strehlow Research Centre
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Matt Poll
Assistant Curator, Indigenous Heritage, Repatriation Project Officer
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney

Time

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

Location

General Lecture Theatre

Quadrangle Building, University of Sydney

Organizer

Sydney Ideassydney.ideas@sydney.edu.au

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28aug4:00 pm6:00 pmCustodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media – Tarleton Gillespie4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Event Organized By: Media@Sydney

Event Details

Most social media users want their chosen platforms free from harassment and porn. But they also want to see the content they choose to see. This means platforms face an irreconcilable contradiction: while platforms promise an open space for participation and community, every one of them imposes rules of some kind.

In the early days of social media, content moderation was hidden away, even disavowed. But the illusion of the open platform has, in recent years, begun to crumble. Today, content moderation has never been more important, or more controversial. In Custodians of the Internet, Tarleton Gillespie investigates how social media platforms police what we post online – and the societal impact of these decisions.

“I have been writing about the impact of platforms and the digital transformation for fifteen years,” said Gillespie. “This book explains how content moderation works: how the platforms think of their responsibilities, the way they create and articulate the rules, the labor behind the scenes, and recent efforts to automate it all.” Based on interviews with content moderators, creators, and consumers, this book contributes to the current debates about the public responsibilities of platforms, be it about harassment, data privacy, or political propaganda.

Gillespie argues that content moderation still receives too little public scrutiny. How and why platforms moderate can shape societal norms and alter the contours of public discourse, cultural production, and the fabric of society.

Tarleton Gillespie is a principal researcher at Microsoft Research New England, part of the Social Media Collective research group. He is an affiliated associate professor at Cornell University, in the Department of Communication and the Department of Information Science. He cofounded the blog Culture Digitally.

He is the author of Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture (MIT, 2007), the co-editor of Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society (MIT, 2014); his newest book is Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media (Yale, 2018).

Time

(Tuesday) 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Location

N480 Woolley Common Room

John Woolley Building, University of Sydney

Organizer

Media@Sydneyjolynna.sinanan@sydney.edu.au

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28aug6:30 pm8:00 pmSydney research goes full scale for Shakespeare: the Popup Globe6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Event Organized By: Sydney Ideas

Event Details

The Popup Globe, currently under construction for its upcoming season of Shakespeare performances in the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park, is closely based on landmark research done at the University of Sydney

Event details

Event type: Panel
Date: Tuesday 28 August 2018
Time: 6.30 – 8pm
Venue: Charles Perkins Centre Auditorium (D17), John Hopkins Drive (off Missenden Rd, next to the Ovals, Ross St Entrance)
Cost: Free and open to all with online registrations required
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Please note: while there is some parking available within the University next to the building, at New Law Building carpark, behind RPA, at Broadway and some street parking, spaces are limited so we suggest using public transport whenever possible.

Two decades ago Associate Professor Tim Fitzpatrick and Technical Director Russell Emerson began trying to work out what Shakespeare’s second Globe playhouse, built in 1614 on the burnt-out foundations of the first Globe, was really like. Professor Fitzpatrick, who is a researcher in the University’s Department of Theatre and Performance Studies had seen the London reconstruction. He was convinced that actors building a theatre for actors wouldn’t have created such an unforgiving and difficult performance space, so he went back to the original sources to find an alternative interpretation. In the process he found that previous scholars had failed to notice certain key details, in particular in a sketch done in the 1630s by prominent artist Wenceslaus Hollar.

Many geometrical calculations and computer-aided designs later, Fitzpatrick and Emerson came up with a model for the playhouse that was significantly smaller than the London Globe. Their smaller playhouse has since been validated by the archaeology, which it fits perfectly.

They then paused the project but received a phone call in 2015 from Miles Gregory, a theatre director and producer in Auckland: “We want to build your theatre”. Miles is the creative force behind what has become a remarkably successful enterprise. The Popup Globe uses Fitzpatrick’s calculations and Emerson’s CAD designs to create a theatre space that is intimate and inclusive.

The Popup Globe has already had three groundbreaking seasons in Auckland, a very successful season in Melbourne last spring – and now a season in Sydney that will bring four top-flight productions playing in repertory from 5 September – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Macbethand The Comedy of Errors.

For this panel discussion Professor Fitzpatrick will summarise the University team’s research, Miles Gregory will give an overview of the Popup Globe enterprise so far, and prominent NZ actress Amanda Billing will offer first-hand insights into acting in this unique space. To bring the Popup Globe project to life, the speakers will present extensive visuals.

The Speakers:

Associate Professor Tim Fitzpatrick holds a BA (Hons) and PhD from Sydney, and spent his academic career in the arts faculty – initially in the department of Italian, and then as one of the founders of the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies. He has published on the Commedia dell’Arte; on Elizabethan performance, paying particular attention to entrance- and exit-patterns and how they might reflect the stage resources that the playwrights ‘wrote into’ their texts; and on the architecture of the public playhouses of Elizabethan London.
Dr Miles Gregory is Artistic Director and Founder of the Pop-up Globe, a full-scale, temporary working replica of the second Globe Theatre. He directs Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Comedy of Errorsin the current season. He is also Director of Henslowe Irving, an arts and culture management consultancy, and has worked as Chief Executive and Artistic Director for the Maltings Theatre in Berwick-upon-Tweed, as Regional Producer (Bristol) for Shakespeare’s Globe, and as Artistic Director and Founder of the Bristol Shakespeare Festival. He holds a BA (Hons) from Durham, an MFA from Exeter and a PhD from Bristol.
Amanda Billing plays Lady Macbeth in the current Popup Globe production of Macbeth. She has had a prominent theatre and TV career in New Zealand, after (and alongside) a career as teacher. She shares with the other panellists a commitment to theatre as a key educational tool. Amanda holds a BA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Canterbury.

Time

(Tuesday) 6:30 pm - 8:00 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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28aug6:30 pm8:00 pmIQ2 DEBATE: IT'S TOO SOON TO DITCH FOSSIL FUELS6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Event Organized By: The Ethics Centre

Event Details

It’s the biggest debate humanity has to settle. Do we ditch fossil fuels for renewable energy right here and now or transition over time?

Every minute we delay could mean dire consequences for our future and the climate. Yet a hasty switch could see unreliable and expensive options rolled out.

We need an energy quadfecta that gives us lower emissions, dependability, security, and affordability.

In many ways, efforts to transition to this are already underway. The last few years saw a huge shift from coal and oil to gas, which is still a fossil fuel but far greener. Residential rooftop solar panels have been subsidised. South Australia is now exporting electricity generated by wind and sun. Is it too little, too slow?

Consumers, the Australian government, and the energy and mining sectors all recognise the world needs to move away from coal, oil, and gas. But do we do it today or in stages over a few years or decades?

IQ2 covers the biggest issues of our times, building a bridge between ideological extremes to deliver smart, civil and engaging debate. This year IQ2 Australia celebrates its tenth anniversary – there’s never been more important time for respectful conversations about the issues that matter.

IQ2 is proudly supported by:

SPEAKERS

FOR

Cecile Wake is Shell Australia’s vice president of commercial, overseeing the company’s national oil and gas investments. She has 20 years’ experience in mining, oil, and gas sectors around the world. Cecile says the world has a moral imperative to transition away from fossil fuels and that work is already underway, but we can’t simply ditch them overnight.

* Second speaker annoucement coming soon

AGAINST

Ketan Joshi is a science communicator who worked in the renewable sector for eight years, first as a data analyst, then in communications and advocacy. He has published work in The Monthly, Gizmodo, Cosmosand others, and now works in data science communications at CSIRO. Ketan says we’re overdue for the full-scale ditching of fossil fuels, and the delays are unforgivable.

Lisa Cox is The Guardian AU’s environment reporter. She has been working on a special series called ‘Our wide brown land’ which has investigated overlooked environmental issues in Australia. Lisa argues ditching fossil fuels is becoming more urgent and can no longer be delayed. She says we have the urgent need, technology and ability to switch to renewables today.

Time

(Tuesday) 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Location

Sydney Town Hall

483 George Street, Sydney, NSW,

Organizer

The Ethics Centre

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29aug5:30 pm7:00 pmTaking the long view on out-of-home care5:30 pm - 7:00 pm Event Organized By: Sydney Ideas

Event Details

This expert panel, featuring Emeritus Professor Harriet Ward, will explore the contribution of longitudinal research in understanding the impact on vulnerable children and families.

Event details

Event type: Panel
Date: Wednesday 29 August 2018
Time: 5:30 – 7.00pm
Venue: Law School Foyer, Level 2, Sydney Law School (F10), Eastern Avenue (next to Fisher library, either University Ave or City Rd Entrance)
Cost: Free and open to all with online registrations required
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The Dean’s Lecture Series will host a panel discussion to explore how longitudinal research informs policy and service delivery for vulnerable children and families, and ultimately improves outcomes. Reforms to out-of-home care in NSW invite greater scrutiny of the impacts of different permanency pathways on children. To date there has been very limited Australian research into children’s outcomes in different placement types, including open adoption, kinship care, guardianship and other permanency orders. Targeted and longitudinal research offers the most effective means of addressing this gap in knowledge.

The panel speakers will share lessons learnt from a range of international and Australian longitudinal studies targeting vulnerable children and families, including how these studies have been used to inform policy development and service design.

The Speakers

Professor Harriet Ward, Emeritus Professor of Child and Family Research, Loughborough University
Professor Ward has more than 30 years of experience as a research director and field researcher, an adviser to policymakers and service providers, and a social work practitioner. She was academic adviser to the joint UK Department of Health/Department of Education research initiative on safeguarding children. Professor Ward represents England on the Board of EUSARF (European Scientific Association on Residential and Family Care for Children and Adolescents), has received a EUSARF lifetime achievement award, and was awarded a CBE for services to children and families in 2012.
Professor Elizabeth Fernandez, Professor of Social Work, University of NSW
Professor Fernandez’s career spans more than two decades of teaching and research in child abuse, trauma, family violence, care and protection. Her areas of specialisation include research into practice with children and families, child and youth wellbeing, vulnerable families, early intervention, care and protection, risk assessment, children and legal intervention, foster care and adoption, social inclusion and minority groups, child and adolescent mental health, life course theory and research.
Professor Paul Delfabbro, School of Psychology, Adelaide University
Professor Delfabbro’s principal research interests are in the field of behavioural addictions (gambling and technology), child protection and out-of-home care. Most of his research involves statistical analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys and experimental studies. He is one of the academics who has been analysing the findings from the NSW Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study. It is Australia’s first large-scale prospective longitudinal study of children and young people in out-of-home care.
Deirdre Cheers, CEO, Barnardos Australia
Deirdre Cheers is the CEO of Barnardos Australia and the Centre for Excellence in Open Adoption. She is also deputy Chair of the Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies (ACWA). Deirdre has a deep knowledge and experience in public administration, not-for-profit governance and cross-cultural perspectives and professional networks, with a passion for children and family services and an emphasis on the care and protection of vulnerable children and young people.
Associate Professor Amy Conley Wright (chair)
Associate Professor Wright is the Director of the Institute of Open Adoption Studies at the University of Sydney.

Time

(Wednesday) 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Location

Law School Foyer

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

Organizer

Sydney Ideassydney.ideas@sydney.edu.au

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