Sydney Ideas

Since the smashing of labour’s collective bargaining power under neoliberalism, how is the transition to a postcapitalist society to be enacted? Are we currently witnessing the zombie state of neoliberalism in its death throes? What is the role of technology and automation, as well as human agency, in shaping the future? These issues and more animate Paul Mason’s talk. SPEAKER: Paul Mason, journal...

Cancer and neurologial diseases are among the top 5 causes of death in Australia. However, there is some good news in this battle against these as new big data technologies now allow scientists to measure nearly every aspect of a cancerous tumor and take real-time scans of the active human brain. This big data may hold the key to understanding causes and possible cures for cancer as well as unders...

False memories, like true ones, have consequences for people, affecting later thoughts, intentions, and behaviours. Once planted, the false memories look very much like true memories – in terms of behavioural characteristics, emotionality and neural signatures. If false memories can be so readily planted in the mind, do we need to think about ‘regulating’ this mind technology? And what do these ps...

The recent review of the national Australian Curriculum has recommended reducing arts learning in our schools. Many in the sector see the recommendations as a direct challenge to decades of research and teaching that demonstrates that students who engage in an active, demanding, high-quality arts education are more likely to excel in their academic and non-academic lives. Sydney Ideas presents a r...

How might philosophical research into apparently non-practical matters be of general relevance to the community? What benefits might tax-payers expect to flow from public support of philosophical research? In the light of comments made in last year’s federal election campaign about research funding for philosophy projects, a panel of philosophers address different aspects of these pressing questio...

Sugar Sweetened Schools: a supply chain to childhood obesity? With rates of childhood and adult obesity at all time highs, it’s time to reconsider the delivery of nutrition to children, but where should we start? Establishing a healthy lifestyle from a young age is essential for our children’s optimal physical and mental development. A school environment can provide a platform for learning the ski...

What lessons should we draw from the First World War? Professor Glenda Sluga discusses the war's legacies from the perspective of its end, and the twinned principles on which a new postwar international order was to be established – namely nationality and the League of Nations. Her aim is to understand the relative significance of nationalism and of what contemporaries articulated as a 'new era of...

UNESCO’s 1972 Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage is the only international instrument for safeguarding the world’s heritage. Professor Lynn Meskell, Director of the Stanford Archaeology Center, examines how emergent rights to the past are now being presented, promoted and prevented by select groups. A Sydney Ideas event on 7 May 2014 http://sydney.edu.a...

Find out how leading researchers are making a contribution to our understanding of creativity, while at the same time inspiring the next generation through their teaching. If the transformative potential of creativity in the education process is now acknowledged, how are our trainee teachers taught to teach creativity themselves? What are the realities of implementing creative practices in the cla...

Why was the invention of the idea of 'global justice' in the 1970s, a sharp break from the theory of the social contract? Leading human rights scholar, Professor Samuel Moyn from Columbia University, traces the origins of the philosophy of global justice and examines where it stands now. Are the very principles the new philosophy global justice proclaims, further from reality than ever? A Sydney I...

Young people aged 12–25 are the highest at-risk group for experiencing mental health problems. They are also the group most likely to look for help and support online. Using the internet for social networking is their haven – but is it safe, reliable and helpful? Andrew Campbell from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Tracy Adams from Boystown discuss the issue. A Sydney Ideas event on 10 Septembe...

Have you ever bought a pain reliever that ‘targets’ specific pain? Can pain relievers really target a part of the body? Are ‘natural’ medicines or supplements always better or safer than prescription drugs? Turns out, a lot of what we “know” about over-the-counter or prescription medicines isn’t true – and in a world where drugs have the capacity to heal or harm us, separating fact from fiction ca...

Professor Sharon Kilbreath and Ms Sally Crossing have a lot of things in common, but perhaps the most striking is their refusal to accept the status quo. When both women were diagnosed with breast cancer over 15 years ago, they discovered a significant gap in the knowledge and understanding of life after surgery and a lack of a united voice for cancer patients. This spurred them on to become leade...

How will a changing climate affect global food production and global hunger? What do we know and what needs to be done? In March 2014, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change released the 5th Assessment Report of Working Group II, responsible for considering human adaptation to climate change. The Report presented a sobering, state-of-the-art assessment of how forecasts of climate change mi...

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 t...

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...

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 Pri...

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...

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?...

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 Austra...

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...

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 is...

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 dif...

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 Con...

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 Nat...