Sydney Ideas

Indonesia’s anti-corruption commission has investigated and prosecuted many big-fish corruption cases, and has secured many dozens of convictions, including very senior judges and politicians. This represents real progress; even a decade ago, many of the commission’s current targets would have been largely untouchable. However, the commission has faced serious resistance from those it has pursued...

In 2001, Stanford mathematician Dr Keith Devlin, also known as ‘The Math Guy’ on NPR’s Weekend Edition, set out to research the life and legacy of the thirteenth century mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, popularly known as Fibonacci. Leonardo introduced the Hindu-Arabic numeral system and arithmetic to the Western world, and thereby helped start a global, social and economic revolution. Devlin recou...

Is home a closed-off and self-sufficient place, or can it be reimagined to be where we find our connections to others and the world? By exploring home in relation to the figure of the stranger and public space, as well as with a focus on practices of dwelling and materialities, the authors of 'Reimagining Home in the 21st Century' demonstrate that thinking differently about home advances our under...

There are many accounts of consumer directed care (CDC )in England. Some focus on its ambitions, some on its achievements, some on its problems and some on its experiences. A series of 'myths' is being constructed around all four of these dimensions. Professor Jill Manthorpe from the Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King's College London, who has undertaken several studies of this subject ov...

As part of World Alzheimer’s Day, four dementia experts from the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre share the latest research breakthroughs on Alzheimer’s disease. Speakers: Dr Rebekah Ahmed, Staff Specialist Neurologist Memory and Cognition Clinic Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and NHMRC Early Career Fellow, Frontier Frontotemporal Dementia Research Group and Motor Neurone Disease Resear...

‘Health hacks’ telling us how to stay young in mind and body are everywhere these days, but are they true? Can we trust their advice? In this health forum, our expert panel will highlight helpful insights that are changing people’s lives for the better, and teach us all how to best look after our minds and bodies as we age.

Paul Farrell (Buzzfeed Australia), Benedetta Brevini (Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media), Julie Posetti (journalist and academic) and Gabor Szathmari (CryptoAustralia co-founder) discuss the extent of data collection revealed by Edward Snowden’s 2013 intelligence leaks and the sharp acceleration of new national security and data retention legislation in Australia. A Sydney Ideas event on...

'Gatekeeping' continues to be a rousing and provocative word with regard to Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations. Gatekeeping pertains to the various forms of apartheid in Australia, some of which still apply, if in a veiled and insidious way. But the term is also relevant to Aboriginal communities themselves, in which differing degrees of 'whiteness' and 'blackness' are consigned different val...

Professor Ayhan Aktar from Istanbul Bilgi University discusses the turning points in the Turkish process of rewriting the history of the Gallipoli Campaign since the 1930s.

For many years now, anthropologists and urban scholars alike have identified ‘gentrification’ as a process of class conflict in which poorer people get pushed to the margins of urban life in the name of ‘urban renewal'. Using examples from Thailand, China, Greece, and Italy, Professor Michael Herzfeld argues that these short-sighted policies are creating an increasingly disenfranchised and resentf...

Join visiting philosophers Jonathan Tallant (University of Nottingham, UK) and Elay Shech (Auburn University, USA) in a conversation with Associate Professor Kristie Miller from the University of Sydney, as they discuss what implications contemporary physics has for our understanding of time, and how philosophers are engaging with cutting-edge physical theories in their attempts to understand time...

Science used to be 'natural philosophy'; but Francis Bacon and the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries saw a parting of ways. Many scientists now consider philosophy to be largely irrelevant; while many philosophers consider science – particularly theoretical physics – to have lost its grip on reality. Exactly where, they ask, are all those ‘parallel universes’? It’s time for scie...

Women’s political activism has one century of history in North Africa, a history that intersects other social movements, and that has been documented and narrated by two generations of feminist scholars. Yet, the representation of North African women in mainstream Western public discourse tends to neglect this history, and continues to be grounded on Orientalist stereotypes. This panel challenges...

Sydney Ideas co-presented with the Institute of Open Adoption Studies, School of Education and Social Work Join us for a panel discussion to explore the complex issue of contact in the context of open adoption. Adoption is one of the pathways for those children and requires individuals with capacity, sensitivity, and commitment to raise children through open adoption. Part of this openness is real...

When does evidence obscure the truth? Join us for a forum on the avoidable causes of wrongful conviction. Wrongful convictions can and do happen – it's a sad fact of the Australian legal system. This panel looks at how evidence in legal proceedings can inadvertently support false conclusions if handled by non-experts (as is usually the case). Panel members are associate lecturer in psychology Celi...

Forget what you think you know about fake news. Our neighbours in Asia have been dealing with fake news, lies and propaganda for years. More recently, the same technology and social media platforms that have enabled political participation and social change have become a battleground for 'weaponised' internet warriors to spread misinformation. And sometimes the perpetrators are governments themsel...

It’s the 21st century, 100 years since Australian women were lucky enough to get the vote, and we’ve arrived at the age of Pussyriot and Pussyhats. How did women get here? What does this augur for the future of feminism as a world-wide phenomenon, now drawing a new generation of activists, in some cases connecting them with earlier feminist waves? What is the impact of events in the US in particul...

This forum examines developments in Hong Kong in the 20 years since it became the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and prospects for Hong Kong's future under Chinese rule. Presentation #1: Twenty Years of Interpretation of the Basic Law by Beijing: a troubled story 

Presented by: Professor Bing Ling,Professor of Chinese Law and Associate Dean (Internationa...

Journalist Glenn Greenwald discusses his favourite subjects: power and accountability, surveillance and privacy, Trump and fake news, threats to democracy, courage, and the role of journalism in giving a voice to perspectives and events that are ignored and silenced by large media outlets. He is in discussion with former WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, and University of Sydney academics Benedetta...

Karl Widerquist discusses an idea which is increasingly viewed as the only viable way of reconciling poverty relief and full employment. A Sydney Ideas event on 16 August 2017 http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/associate_professor_karl_widerquist.shtml

The World Economic Forum estimates that young people can expect to change careers at least seven times over the course of their lives, and 35 percent of the skills required today will be different in five years. The complexity and uncertainty of the future of work means today’s graduates will have to adapt to new jobs and work environments. In this panel discussion the University of Sydney academi...

Alice P Albright, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education speaks about global education crises and how the Global Partnership for Education partnership is innovating to address the funding challenges and offer quality education at some of the poorest countries of the world. She outlines why should businesses pay attention at education circumstances and support education, an...

An exclusive Sydney Science Festival presentation by acclaimed science writer Dava Sobel. In conversation with Jessica Bloom, a young University of Sydney astrophysics PhD student, Dava speaks of her love for science and what it took for a women to break through. Presented as part of the Sydney Ideas program on 9 August, 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/sydney_science_festival...

From community gardens to pop-up cinemas, from outdoor art installations to mobile libraries, temporary urban interventions are increasingly visible in contemporary cities. A burgeoning literature has highlighted ways in which these transient practices propose alternative lifestyles, reoccupy urban space with new uses, and reinvent daily life from the bottom up, in the pursuit of more just and sus...

Christina Lamb, a multi award-winning foreign correspondent for the UK Sunday Times in conversation with Aparna Balakumar, a final year Media and Communications student at the University of Sydney. Christina Lamb has acted as Washington Bureau Chief for the paper and in 2009 was awarded the prestigious Prix Bayeux Calvados for her reporting from Afghanistan. She won the Foreign Press Association A...