The SEI Podcast Series

Hear from a multidisciplinary range of experts as they assess the stability and resilience of our electricity grid in the face of increasing climate disasters. Panel 3: Using the planning framework to build resilience: a national perspective “Will Australia’s current state planning frameworks build resilience in the future grid 2040?” For more information about this event click here Timestamps 00:...

Hear from experts as they unpack how responses to the climate crisis have been organised by business, government and civil society, and what possibilities of transformation lie ahead. For more information about this event click here . Timestamps 0:50 Introduction – Zoe Whitton 5:36 Reimagining dominant imaginaries, and the three conceits we tell ourselves in solving the climate crisis 35:56 Soluti...

What will it take for communities, the private sector, and government, to build preparedness and resilience in the face of increasing disasters? For more information about this event click here Timestamps 00:50 Introduction – David Schlosberg 4:15 The Role of Government in Reducing the Risk of Climate-Induced Disasters – Rosemary Lyster 12:16 How Does the Audit Office Assess and Manage Risk? - Cla...

In response to the dire findings of the recent State of the Environment Report, this panel will explore the political, economic and ideological constraints that got us here, and the ways forward to ensure meaningful environmental protection. Timestamps00:52 Introduction – David Schlosberg07:35 Environmental Legislation and How we Got to this Current State of the Environment – Gerry Bates13:48 What...

Sociologist and SEI’s 2023 Environmental Humanities Visiting Fellow Sebastián Ureta, explores how the waste produced from mining interacts with human and non-human ecologies. In this talk, Sebastián Ureta will draw on his recently published book with Patricio Flores, 'Worlds of Gray and Green', to challenge us to rethink extraction as ecological practice. This book offers a rich ethnographic explo...

A panel of chemists and social scientists unpack current alternative technologies on the path to decarbonisation and the complex social implications that surround them. For more information about this event click here . Timestamps 00:50 Introduction - Katherine Owens 06:18 The 'Disorderly Transition' to Renewable Energy - Susan Park 14:26 Carbon Capture and Direct Air Capture: What are the Potenti...

In a time of environmental crisis and heightened social and political tension, a panel of SEI experts call for institutionalising justice for all species through key areas of innovation such as international laws on ecocide and the expansion of personhood beyond humans. For more information about this event click here Timestamps 00:50 Introduction - Danielle Celermajer 02:35 The Current Context an...

Hear from MPs and the authors of a major study on the social impact of large-scale renewable energy in rural communities as they launch their ground-breaking report and discuss the local and national policy implications of this research. Read the landmark report, 'Renewables & Rural Australia: A study of community experiences in Renewable Energy Zones in NSW and the case for more equity and co...

In the third event of SEI’s Communities on the Frontline Series, in partnership with University of Sydney's Institute of Agriculture, SEI research lead Professor Susan Park sits down with farmer Tabitha Karp, gas expert Dr Madeline Taylor, and agriculture expert Dr Rebecca Cross, to discuss the regulatory failures of coal seam gas, the impacts of extraction on the regions’ ‘black soil’, possible c...

In the second event of SEI’s Communities on the Frontline Series, filmmaker Kim Nguyen sits down with coal industry representatives and climate activists to view his film, Conversations with Coal Miners about Climate Change, and unpack how we can support coal mining communities in the just transition away from fossil fuels. You can watch Kim's film here . With more frequent climate disasters unfol...

How is the concept of a ‘just transition’ understood? In the first event of SEI’s Communities on the Frontline Series, we hear from researchers and community on why a ‘just transition’ from coal remains a challenging idea to discuss and engage with in Australia. This panel brings together community advocates and academics to talk about Australia’s use and export of coal in light of our commitment...

SEI Postdoctoral Fellow on the FoodLab Sydney project, Kate Johnston, explores the potential of care to address our broken food systems and inform our approach to designing food systems of the future. Care is not usually associated with our food system, which tends to be “reduced to neutral (or amoral) transactional relationships.” (Giraud 2021). Yet it is worth considering what our food syst...

The Usyd Philosophy Society (PhilSoc) in partnership with Sydney Environment Institute present a discussion on the legal and philosophical limits to environmental justice in Australia and transnationally. A panel of researchers who sit at the intersection of law and Indigenous rights will discuss experiences of local communities, especially First Nations, with formal justice systems; access to jus...

Leading environmental scholars highlight the value Indigenous philosophies have for solving global environmental problems as we launch Christine Winter’s new book, 'Subjects of Intergenerational Justice: Indigenous philosophy, the environment and relationships'. To whom (and what) do we owe responsibilities of justice? What happens to ideas of intergenerational and environmental justice if we drop...

Environmental historians, like others who study and write about the environment, have long worked with the emotional and psychological impact of environmental change, including grief, anxiety, rage, and despair. What do we do with that emotion? How do we write about the psychological components of human interactions with other species? Hear from a diverse panel of historians who work on droug...

In public discussion, climate finance is often bandied around with banks positioning themselves as positive actors in addressing climate change. But what do they do? This panel examines how the finance sector is shifting to incorporate climate modelling into its risk assessments for investments, how finance can create new ‘green’ markets and products, be used for investing in ‘green infrastructure...

NSW communities have for decades battled against an influx of large-scale resource extraction projects and fossil fuel industry adjacent developments. The 2020 formalisation of the Morrison government’s ‘gas-fired recovery plan’ has now solidified that the state and national reliance on gas will likely only increase. This panel discussion highlights the risks and burdens of a Gas-Led Rec...

Why is the Australian Government accelerating the expansion of coal and gas exports as other nations commit to emission reduction targets, and what could our future look like instead? In this panel discussion, leading climate and energy experts explain where global climate action is heading and why Australia is so out of step. The panel explores how renewable energy could lead Australia towards a...

In this PhD Seminar, SEI Doctoral Fellow Anna Sturman draws upon her thesis to explore the capitalist state as a key terrain of inquiry for environmental and social justice movements. This analysis draws upon both the contemporary revival of state theory scholarship and on-the-ground responses from movements navigating rolling crises. For more information about this event click here . Timestamps 0...

Lecturer in Environmental Politics, and SEI Postdoctoral Fellow-Multispecies Justice, Dr Christine Winter explores this year's NAIDOC week theme 'Heal Country, Heal the Nation' in a four-part podcast series. The series asks Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to explain what ‘Heal Country, Heal the Nation’ means to them. Running through the series is an exploration of First Nations knowledge...

Warning: The podcast contains explicit language. Just as COVID-19 has laid bare the racial, gender, and economic inequalities upon which our societies are built, the accelerating climate catastrophe has made the violence of capitalism and colonialism inescapable. Yet as social and political structures around the world buckle and break, writers are finding new ways of representing and interrogating...

Lecturer in Indigenous, intergenerational, environmental and multispecies justice, and SEI Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Christine Winter explores this year’s NAIDOC week theme ‘Heal Country, Heal the Nation’ in a four-part podcast series. The series asks Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to explain what ‘Heal Country, Heal the Nation’ means to them. Running through the series is an exploration...

Today, a range of disciplines are discovering or perhaps acknowledging the many and marvelous capacities and qualities of beings other than humans, the complexity of their relationships, and the twin fallacies of human exceptionalism and individualism. Yet even as what or who we know is undergoing radical transformations, writers find themselves working with the languages and grammars forged to co...

Eating ties us to the social and environmental challenges inherent in our food system. It is a system that is currently unsustainable and rife with injustices: from exploitative labour practices to the pressures of climate change, loss of farmland and food traditions to the disempowerment of communities. And paradoxically, people struggle to put food on the table, whilst so much food goes to waste...

The University of Sydney Philosophy Society’s (PhilSoc) Philosophy on the Ground series takes everyday issues in the public discourse and shows how philosophy can enrich our discussion of these topics. In doing this, PhilSoc aims to show that philosophy is far from an outdated or abstract discipline, but something in which everyone can participate and have a voice. The events will take various for...