What's On at UWA

The 5th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity (5APCEI) will be held in Perth at The University of Western Australia between 26-28 September 2011. The conference is co-sponsored by three of Perth’s other universities; Curtin University, Murdoch University and Edith Cowan University.

This is the first time since the APCEI began in 2003 that the conference has been held on the Australian west coast. It is hoped that with the conference theme Educational Integrity: Culture and Values, the geographical location and the fact that spring is a beautiful time to visit Perth, we will be able to welcome colleagues from all over the world to this meeting.

Who should attend?

•Educators •researchers

•administrators

•students

•employers

•ethicists

•anyone interested in developing and maintaining a culture of ethical scholarship is invited to attend this participative and interactive conference

Register at: http://www.apcei.catl.uwa.edu.au/registration

Despite many decades of close economic and diplomatic ties between Australia and Japan, mainstream media coverage of that country continues to reinforce long-standing superficial stereotypes of a static, harmonious, mono-cultural and inward looking society. In reality, Japanese society has long been far more complex and multi-faceted than media stereotypes would suggest. Additionally, significant socio-economic and demographic shifts in recent decades, including a slowing economy, greater internationalization, population aging, and declining birthrates, have further contributed to this complexity and diversity.

Speakers: Professor Vera Mackie, Institute for Social Transformation Research, University of Wollongong and Associate Professor Leng Leng Thang, Department of Japanese Studies, National University of Singapore.

This public lecture will look at how, in the context of globalization, transnational movement and socio-cultural change, meanings and practices associated with family and kinship are being re-shaped. Professor Mackie will discuss the implications of these shifts on family dynamics within Japan, while Professor Thang will highlight the experiences of Japanese lifestyle migrants who, for varying reasons, have chosen to move to Southeast Asia or Australia. The issues raised in both presentations have implications beyond Japan, as similar demographic and socio-cultural processes are also at work across East and Southeast Asia, and in Australia.

Cost: This lecture is free and open to the public.

Christopher Tonkin, Associate Lecturer, School of Music, UWA and a leading composer discusses some of his recent works.

We invite you to join us for this final lecture by Kevin Goss in his role as head of Future Farm Industries CRC.

This public address is a reflection on the wicked, unintended consequences that can arise from rapid economic development, the high cost of government policy inertia to deal effectively with them when known, and the difficult transition to sensible, affordable solutions. Most of all Farming on the Edge presents a vision for sustainable food, fibre and energy production from Australian farmed landscapes.

This lecture is free and open to the public, however seating is limited. ***Please RSVP your attendance to Barbara Williamson: [email protected]

Essential Skills for a Successful Career in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Business, Law and Education. A workshop for postgraduate students and early career researchers.

UWA's Institute of Advanced Studies and the Office of Research and Research Training invite you to participate in a one-day workshop designed for postgraduate students and early career researchers in the humanities, social sciences, business, law and education.

The workshop will provide you with important skills in pursuing your career. Sessions on publishing, funding, ethics and career development will include presentations and discussion with plenty of opportunity to engage with presenters and each other.

Speakers and panellists include:

*Professor Andrew Wells, Deputy CEO, ARC – Humanities and Creative Arts; *Professor Mandy Thomas, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Graduate Studies), ANU; *Dr Kylie Brass, Policy and Project Manager, The Australian Academy of Humanities.

Cost: $55 - Postgraduates | $70 - Early Career Researchers

Professor Davidson will examine works from the UWA collection which form the current exhibition, Recent Past, interrogating her emotional responses to the works.

  We are living in a period of ecocultural disintegration. The complexity and diversity of culture and ecology (ecocultural diversity) is being removed and/or homogenised by powerful forces all tied to modernity, global development and now, climate change. In some respects we are now all in the position of Indigenous peoples who have a lived experience of the desolation of their endemic sense of place and culture. But now, as global ecosystems and the climate change, the whole earth as ‘home’ becomes alien to us.

Despite the scale and power of these transformations to our home at all scales, we generally lack the concepts to understand the negative and positive dimensions of our situation. This presentation will examine what I call  ‘psychoterratic states’ with particular emphasis on the concept of solastalgia, developed by me to explain the lived experience of negative environmental change to a loved home environment. In this case, the loved home environment is Perth and its location within South West, Western Australia.

I will conclude with some thoughts about positive concepts that oppose solastalgia that might bring about genuine sustainability and human happiness ... even in Perth.

Bio,

Glenn Albrecht undertakes internationally relevant transdisciplinary research in the domain of sustainability and ecosystem health and has also produced research papers/publications in environmental history, transdisciplinarity, sustainability, environmental politics, environmental and animal ethics.

Glenn is on the editorial board of the international journal Ecohealth and is a member of the International Association for Health and Ecology. He has been the J.W. McConnell Visiting Professor in Ecosystem Health at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario in 2003, 2005 and 2007 where he has conducted research and teaching.

**** All Welcome ****

With the possibility of a double-dip recession in the US and sovereign debt crisis facing the EU, UWA experts in finance and economics will assess the case for optimism and answer your questions on the future of the local, national and global economy at an open public forum. Find out whether there is indeed a case for optimism!

Presenters and topics covered:

Winthrop Professor Ken Clements BHP Billiton Research Fellow and Head of Economics (Prospects for the Australian Dollar )

Winthrop Professor Raymond da Silva Rosa Head of Accounting and Finance (The Case for Optimism? Lessons from the ‘Nanny Market Economies’)

Winthrop Professor Richard Heaney Professor of Finance (The GFC and Australian Superannuation Fund Performance)

RSVP: www.business.uwa.edu.au/school/eventregistration

Emeritus Professor Eric Cassell from New York Presbyterian Hospital has a distinguished international reputation in the field of moral problems in medicine, with special focus on the care of the dying and the nature of suffering. His widely cited works include: The Healer’s Art, The Place of the Humanities in Medicine, Changing Values in Medicine, Talking with Patients, Doctoring: The Nature of Primary Care Medicine and The Nature of Suffering.

A public lecture by Thomas McLean, Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century British Literature, University of Otago, New Zealand.

Most Australians know Kosciuszko as the name of a mountain. But Tadeusz Kosciuszko was one of the most important figures of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

This lecture will offer a brief overview of Kosciuszko’s remarkable life—his youth in Poland, his service in the American Revolution, his attempts to bring a similar revolution to his homeland, and his life in exile after the failure of the Kosciuszko Uprising. But its main focus will be the literary and artistic works created in Great Britain to commemorate the Polish general.

This event is free and open to the public.

Effective recovery from disasters depends not just on the physical impacts of the event but also on how the societal environment supports the complex and protracted processes of recovery. Research highlights the importance of not only strong local government capacity, but also of a cohesive system of public, private and volunteer groups integrated into the community. Our research explores a range of issues in the context of recent recovery efforts in New Zealand. The research has highlighted that effective recovery planning must consider in advance issues around 1) psychosocial support and community involvement in the recovery process 2) the needs of vulnerable populations and 3) policy and economic issues. The 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011 Canterbury earthquakes provide a rare opportunity to improve and enhance existing knowledge of the recovery process.

Mozart's Requiem has an almost mystical status within the canon of Classical choral music. The Perth Undergraduate Choral Society (PUCS) is delighted to present "Genesis of a Requiem," a concert which explores two masterworks which were among the key influences on Mozart's composition: Michael Haydn's Requiem in C Minor, and Handel's Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline. PUCS is thrilled to welcome back distinguished soprano Katja Webb, who returns to Perth for this concert along with performances with WA Opera in November. The concert also features the outstanding Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, and soloists Caitlin Cassidy, Andrew Sutherland and Thomas Friberg.

In January 1772, a 15 year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart participated in the performance of a Requiem Mass for the Archbishop of Salzburg, Sigismund Graf von Schrattenbach. Wolfgang's father Leopold Mozart held the position of deputy Kapellmeister (director of music), and the recognised prodigy Wolfgang frequently performed as a part of the court orchestra. The Requiem for the Archbishop was composed by Johann Michael Haydn (younger brother of Josef Haydn), who was Kapellmeister at the time, and whom had had a close association with the Archbishop. The profoundly moving work was no doubt heavily influenced by the death of Haydn's infant daughter early in 1771.

Michael Haydn's Requiem had a profound impact on the young Mozart, who made extensive use of themes from the Requiem in his own compositions. Twenty years later, when Mozart was commissioned to compose his own Requiem, he used the Michael Haydn work as a model for its structure, as well as revisiting many of Haydn's themes and ideas in his own work. Listeners familiar with the Mozart Requiem will be astonished by the parallels and common themes between the two works.

Mozart also modelled much of his liturgical writing after another master composer, George Frideric Handel. For the Requiem, he naturally turned to Handel's own funeral compositions, including an elaborate Anthem for the Funeral of Queen Caroline in 1737. Mozart's familiar opening introit is based extensively on the opening chorus of Handel's anthem (a fact which was acknowledged by Mozart himself).

The two masterpieces on the program are surprisingly neglected - the performance of the Handel Anthem will be the first in Western Australia, and the performance of the Haydn Requiem may be only the second.

Tickets will be available at the door, via BOCS online, at their ticket outlets or by phone 9484 1133

Perth Upmarket is Perth’s premier quarterly market for original and handcrafted wares. The market brings together over 150 of Perth’s most talented artists, designers, craftsmen and gourmets all under one roof at the University of Western Australia’s Winthrop Hall. Incorporating a dedicated Junior Upmarket and Gourmet section. Parking and entry are free and the venue is easily accessible. Two ATMs onsite.

Professor Jeremy Keenan is currently a Professorial Research Associate in the Department of Social Anthropology and Sociology at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Professor Jeremy Keenan will explain events in North Africa from 2003, the year in which the US launched its ‘second’ or Saharan-Sahelian front in the Global War on Terror (GWOT), to the toppling of the Gadhafi regime in Libya in August-September 2011. In so doing, the talk will explain how the GWOT and ‘Arab Spring’, as it has become known, are linked.

The Confucius Institute is running our last intake of the year. We offers an ongoing series of Chinese language classes from beginner to Advance levels.Our language courses are designed for those with an interest in travel, business and friendship. Our teachers are qualified Chinese language teaching professionals with many years of experience.

The Confucius Institute will be running our 4th intake of our Chinese Language courses. We offers an ongoing series of Chinese language classes from Beginners to Advanced levels and our NEW Business Chinese. Our language courses are designed for those with an interest in travel, business and friendship. Our teachers are qualified Chinese language teaching professionals with many years of experience.

Dr Darren Jorgensen, writer, researcher and Assist. Prof., Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, UWA, Dr Ric Spencer, artist, writer and curator at Fremantle Arts Centre, Dr Tony Hughes-d'Ath, writer, cultural historian and Assoc. Prof., English and Cultural Studies, UWA, and Thomas Hoareau, prize-winning Western Australian artist, will form a panel of four speakers. Their challenge is to deliver an engaging, informative talk of only seven minutes on a painting of their choice from the current exhibition Recent Past: Australian painting of the 70s and 80s, followed by questions from the audience. Strictly timed, the speeches will challenge the presenters to encapsulate the essence of their ideas in a considered, direct and engaging way.

Eva-Marie Middleton, PhD candidate, School of Music, UWA presents an exciting and innovative research project involving multi-methods including the evaluation of recordings made in the last 80 years.

Akira Kurosawa directed and co-wrote Ikiru in 1952. Filmed in black and white, it ostensibly tells the story of Kanji Watanabe, a bureaucrat and section chief who spends virtually his entire life working in a city office. Neither Watanabe nor anyone else in the office actually does anything much that is worthwhile or productive. They shuffle and stamp papers that simply move from useless pile to useless pile. They may look as if they are actually getting something done, but not only does it become clear that they are doing nothing but also that they are meant to be doing nothing, and also that they on some level, aware that they do nothing. The office, with piles and piles of neatly tied and stacked folders, is itself in effect a façade—a stage set—and in some ways a quite beautiful one.

After he learns he has terminal cancer—a fact that the doctors lie to him about—Watanabe immediately becomes desolate. It is by means of this palpable despair that Watanabe becomes aware that he is faced with a problem that goes beyond his impending death. The nature of that problem is the focus of this talk.

Ikiru is a case in which a philosophical problem is presented and a solution offered in situ, that is, in the context of a particular life and the concrete problems encountered in it. It is, in many ways, both prior to and more powerful than treatments of the problem in professional philosophy. More through visual than verbal narrative, Kurosawa intimates that in the face of death not only Watanabe, but we too, are alone.