EVENT: Disability in Australia: Exposing a Social Apartheid

You are invited to a public lecture as part of Diversity Dialogues program by

Associate Professor Christopher Newell, AM, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania

Abstract: This public lecture dares to name and explore a hidden form of social apartheid in Australia — the routine, daily and oppressive treatment of people with disabilities. Approximately one in five of the population has a disability and in a variety of intimate and everyday ways the lives of every Australian are routinely touched by the experience of disability. One of Australia’s leading commentators and scholars with regard to disability explores and exposes some of the subterranean dimensions to our social fabric. Rather than being an individual medical tragedy, disability is explored as a social problem. Drawing upon his own experience, and that of fellow Australians with disabilities, Associate Professor Christopher Newell will explore the place of disability in Australian society. Topics covered include health and welfare, sport, biotechnology, deinstitutionalisation, political life, and the treatment of refugees. In a rare yet timely audit, we discover that disability is central to Australian society, media, and culture, a matter of human rights and justice that should concern us all.

Brief CV: Christopher Newell, A.M. is an Associate Professor within the School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, teaching Medical Ethics and Disability Studies. He is a member of the Australian Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Council and has an ongoing involvement with working with a variety of health bodies. He is a member of the Australian Medical Council, and a member of NHMRC Licensing Committee. He is also an Anglican priest, currently on staff at St David’s Cathedral, Hobart, and a member of the boards of Consumers' Health Forum of Australia, the Disability Studies and Research Institute, and Director of Australian General Practice Accreditation Ltd. Recent books include Digital Disability: The Social Construction of New Media (With G Goggin, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). Books in press for release this year include From Out back to Out Front: Voices in Spirituality and Disability from the Land Down Under, (Haworth Press, 2004) and, with Gerard Goggin, Disability in Australia: Exposing a Social Apartheid. (UNSW Press, 2004). In 1999 Dr Newell was Highly Commended in the Australian Human Rights Awards. In 2001 he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his work.

ALL WELCOME. NO RESERVATION IS REQUIRED

(Enter off Hackett Drive though Hackett Entrance 1. Parking available in Car Park P3 near Reid Library, Law Building and Arts Building – the venue is wheelchair accessible) . Please refer to map at http://maps.uwa.edu.au/crawley/display/11

For more information please contact The Institute of Advanced Studies, UWA on Tel (08) 6488 1340; Email [email protected]; www.ias.uwa.edu.au