Works that Shaped the World: Sarah Bellamy (1770-1843) and Women Transported to Botany Bay
Seminar
Born in 1770, 250 years ago, Sarah Bellamy was one of the longest lived first fleeters by the time of her death in 1843. Owing to the dearth of records, hers and the lives of other women transported from England to arrive in Botany Bay in 1788 have been described as ‘unthinkable…
Books that Changed Humanity: The Quiet American
Lecture
The world may yearn for a ‘quiet’ American in 2020, but 65 years ago, the English novelist, Graham Greene presaged its dangers in The Quiet American. In an age where US leadership has all but flamed out, its remnant pyre illuminating mostly failure, Greene’s perfectly structured novel warned of…
Conversations across the Creek: Pill Testing
Seminar
Pill testing, or drug checking, is a medically supervised intervention focussed on providing reliable and non-discriminatory information to people who intend to use drugs. The ACT government sanctioned trials of pill testing at the Groovin the Moo festival in 2018 and 2019, and…
Works that Shaped the World: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
Seminar
From nationalism to liberalism to communism, the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel inspired a variety of modern ideologies that share at least one thing in common: the notion that history is rational, and that it becomes ever more so the more we recognize it as such. This talk will explore…
Conversations across the Creek: Microbes and Masses
Seminar
There is no escape. Microbes are among the masses: too small to see but dangerous on a global scale. A killer coronavirus has been given the suffix ‘19’, to date the novelty and year of its outbreak. How can techniques to project the spread of infection, psychological analysis of…
CANCELLED Settler Colonial Liberalism and the Effect of Sovereignty: Notes from Nineteenth-Century Victoria
Seminar
ABOUT THE LECTURE In normative theories and histories of liberalism both, the question of sovereignty is usually understood to precede determinations of citizenship. Territorial sovereignty is, in these narratives, the ground upon which political liberalism operates. What happens, though, if we…
Works that Shaped the World: Beethoven
Lecture
ABOUT THIS LECTURE In 1794 Joseph Haydn wrote a sonata for the brilliant pianist Therese Jansen, a work of astonishing depth and complexity. A year later his pupil Ludwig van Beethoven composed his first piano sonata, which owed more than a little to Mozart (who had died four years…