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Today's date is Friday, March 29, 2024
Events for the public
 April 2020
Thursday 30
16:00 - SEMINAR - Metal Burial: understanding caching behaviour and �contact� material culture in the NE Kimberley : Archaeology Seminar Series 2020 More Information
This paper explores identity, and the impacts of cross-cultural encounters on individuals, material objects and cultural practices through a lens on cached modified metal objects and associated cultural materials from the NE Kimberley. These objects were wrapped in paperbark and weighed down within a stone rock-ring, a bundling practice also seen in human burials in this region. The utilisation of new materials (e.g. metal) with traditional techniques (edge-grinding metal into an axe) is explored. These objects and their potential owner(s) are contextualised within the invasion/ contact and particularly pastoral history of this region.

 May 2020
Friday 01
11:00 - SEMINAR - Asian Studies Seminar : The Origins of Urban Renewal in Singapore: A Transnational History Website | More Information
This paper examines the origins of urban renewal in Singapore through a transnational history lens. It focuses on the role in particular of two United Nations led teams of experts one headed by Erik Lorange and the other by Charles Abrams in the early 1960s and the impact these had on how urban renewal proceeded in Singapore’s central city area. This approach broadens the focus to encompass more than just the role played by Singapore’s Housing and Development Board and Urban Renewal Authority which dominates much of the existing scholarship. In doing so it finds that there was much more agreement between these international experts and their visions of a modern city and that of the Singaporean agencies and individuals tasked with implementing renewal. The paper finds that both the foreign experts and local authorities perceived urban renewal of Singapore’s central area (and more broadly) as a key stone in the state’s plans for national development.

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology Seminar Series : Precarity and the Pandemic: Talking about Trauma Website | More Information
Following research into the conditions and experiences of academic precarity, the talk is in response to calls from Australian sociologists and universities to turn our attention to the COVID-19 crisis. This is done by taking seriously the idea, which stretches from experts in the news media to laymen on social media, that many if not all of us are experiencing trauma or will be traumatised by the pandemic. Using social systems theory and cultural trauma literature to guide the discussion, three contexts that have been touched by the pandemic are considered: casual university tutors working from home, a senior-focused not-for-profit operating in Perth, and community building efforts by the International Bateson Institute.
Tuesday 05
18:30 - FREE LECTURE - UCC Tech Talk #2: Dive into DNS : Learn the basics of the Domain Name System. Website | More Information
Join the University Computer Club online from 6:30pm on Tuesday, May 5th to learn all about the DNS system and how you can get started.

The URL for the event is here: http://meetings.ucc.asn.au/b/dyl-rvz-n2c

Facebook URL to RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/183359025954204/
Thursday 07
16:00 - SEMINAR - Archaeology Seminar Series 2020 : What we allow to dis-integrate: Ruins of development in South Asia More Information
Ruins are everywhere. In South Asia, socio-economic development has led to the rapid transformation of the environmental, social and economic landscape. Led by a diverse range of actors, these transformations have informed the creation of new forms of ruins and ruination, the disintegration of recognisable forms whether they be material, ideational or institutional. Objects and institutions generate social effect in their preservation as well as their destruction and disposal. Thus, what we allow to disintegrate, to fall into ruin, is a powerful an assessment of our collective lives and histories as those we preserve and allow to flourish. Ruins of development call for a wider conceptualisation that locates their materiality within wider social, political and economic contexts. Focusing on hydropower development, ruins and life amidst these ruins in the eastern Himalaya, the talk will discuss how institutions, politics and people co-produce and even accelerate the production of new ruins and ruinations.
Friday 08
12:30 - EVENT - UWA Linguistics Seminar : Whither Evidentiality? More Information
In this talk I consider how the recent ‘epistemic turn’ in Conversation Analysis (e.g. Heritage 2012) is deepening our understanding of the ways in which language is utilised as a resource for knowledge management, and the utility of knowledge management for achieving broader social goals. This in turn is leading us to consider lexicalised and grammaticalised expressions of knowledge more robustly in terms of their social embeddedness. Drawing on a range of data from different languages, I show how some of the classic issues in the study the ‘linguistic coding of epistemology’ (Chafe & Nichols 1986), such as the typology of evidential categories, and the relationships between evidentiality and epistemic modality may be recast through the lens of knowledge management as a key driver of social interaction.

Chafe, Wallace & Johanna Nichols (eds) 1986. Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology. New York: Academic Press Heritage, John 2012. The epistemic engine: Action formation, sequence organisation and territories of knowledge. Research on Language and Social Interaction 45: 30-52. Short bio Associate Professor Ilana Mushin is a Reader in Linguistics at the University of Queensland. She has longstanding research interests in relationships between language, culture, cognition and social interaction. She has been researching the pragmatics of evidential strategies since the 1990s and is the author of Evidentiality and Epistemological Stance, published by John Benjamins in 2001. Her recent research includes knowledge management in conversation and in primary school classroom interaction, and descriptive and interactional linguistic analysis of Australian First Nations languages, especially Garrwa.

Zoom Session Details: Link: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/96327923565?pwd=a3l3SFU5ZDlsWXdEdTFPL0o1eU9UUT09 Password: 400831

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series : RAISING RARE BREEDS: DOMESTICATION, EXTINCTION AND MEAT IN THE ANTHROPOCENE More Information
Over the past three decades, the intensive livestock industry’s dependence on a small number of high-productivity hybrids has resulted in the extinction of a domestic animal breed globally each month (FAO 2015). This poses a significant risk to food security, as the heritage breeds under threat possess valuable qualities, such as pest resistance and climate adaptability, which may prove invaluable in the rapidly changing climatic and environmental conditions in which we now live. Recognising this, a number of Australian farmers are working to conserve animal genetic diversity within regenerative farming models through building niche markets for the meat, fibre, dairy and eggs of endangered breeds. In this seminar, I will present initial findings from the project and will be seeking to learn of synergies with the current work of the discipline group’s members.

Zoom Session, to start or join please use the following link: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/94786018805?pwd=MG93UndOWWFub1JwY1R1SDFrY0xyZz09

Password: 688654
Tuesday 12
8:00 - EVENT - 2020 International Symposium on Slope Stability in Open Pit Mining and Civil Engineering Online Event : An online event for open pit mining and civil engineering practitioners Website | More Information
Slope Stability 2020 will provide a forum for open pit mining and civil engineering practitioners, consultants, researchers and suppliers worldwide to exchange views on best practice and state-of-the-art slope technologies. Best practice with respect to pit slope investigations, design, implementation and performance monitoring will be discussed during the symposium.

17:00 - SEMINAR - UWA Music presents:Callaway Centre Research Seminar Series : Alex Allen & Jet Kye Chong Website | More Information
The Conservatorium of Music is a vibrant centre for research in music and music education, where a thriving community of scholars is engaged in exploring the frontiers of knowledge, working on a wide range of research projects with diverse outputs.

Our free weekly seminar series showcases presenters from within UWA and from the wider community.

This week we'll hear from 2 honours students, Alex Allen & Jet Kye Chong.

Alex Allen - Contrary States: Dialectical Aesthetics in William Blake and Jacob Ter Veldhuis’ The Garden of Love

Contemporary Dutch composer Jacob Ter Veldhuis’ work The Garden of Love for oboe and soundtrack (2002) recontextualises William Blake’s poem of the same name from his Songs of Innocence and Experience (1789-1794). The work juxtaposes two disparate aesthetics, here considered as the ‘divine’ and ‘earthly’, which can be seen to represent Ter Veldhuis’ style at large. Ter Veldhuis harnesses these contrasting aesthetics in The Garden of Love to depict Blake’s antithetical allegory for the conflict between individual spirituality and organised religion. I suggest that Blake’s dialectics can be used as a lens through which we can understand Ter Veldhuis’ eclectic style, which has so far resisted definition due to its disparate and contrary basis. Through the interplay of his disparate aesthetics in The Garden of Love, Ter Veldhuis embodies Blakean dialectical philosophy threefold: he represents contraries as co-substantiating equals, asserts the inherent dualism of contraries, and denounces moral judgements that engender negation

Bio: Alexandra is an honours student completing her studies in oboe performance at the UWA Conservatorium.

Jet Kye Chong - Predicting marimba stickings with neural networks

In marimba music, ‘stickings’ are the choices of mallets used to strike each note, and they significantly influence both the physical facility and expressive quality with which the music may be played. Choosing ‘good’ stickings and evaluating one’s stickings are necessary steps in learning music, but they can be slow and difficult tasks, often relying on trial-and-error vaguely guided by past experience. This is the ‘sticking problem’, which can impede technical and musical development, and hinder the learning of music. In this study, a machine learning approach is employed to address the sticking problem by predicting and annotating stickings in 4-mallet marimba music as suggestions for marimbists.

A 32,000-sample dataset is constructed from exercises in Leigh Howard Stevens’ Method of Movement for Marimba by digitally transcribing the pitch and duration data of notes in each exercise, then iterating through keys, ranges on the instrument, and valid sticking annotations. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks are constructed and fit to this dataset over a range of hyperparameters. K-Fold cross validation and qualitative testing are conducted on the models, yielding a maximum quantitative accuracy 77.99% (±0.32%) from a bidirectional sigmoid-activation LSTM model, and a maximum qualitative accuracy of 63% consistent across models. The discrepancies between quantitative and qualitative metrics are discussed, but promising results invite further development and study in this fiel

Bio: Jet Kye Chong is an emerging Australian composer and percussionist completing a Bachelor of Philosophy (Hons.) majoring in Mathematics and Music.

Free entry - join via Zoom (Meeting ID: 312 470 079) or click HERE

Contact details: [email protected]
Thursday 14
16:00 - SEMINAR - Archaeology Seminar Series- Zoom Edition : Updates on the Structural Analysis of the Phanom-Surin Ship in Thailand More Information
This paper presents current results of my ongoing research on the 9th-century Phanom-Surin ship (PSN) in Thailand. It aims to understand the PNS site and its connections within the Indian Ocean World (IOW) in the 1st millennium CE. The PNS ship was constructed in the sewn-plank fashion in which the planks were fastened by Arenga pinnate cordage with continuous stitching patterns over wadding. The sewn-plank tradition is still practiced today in the Arabian Sea region and eastern coast of India, although some structural attributes have been transformed and developed. In this presentation, I would like to highlight the understanding of the PNS' plank fastening technique in comparison with the other sewn-plank vessels known in the IOW shipbuilding traditions. Primarily, there are two types of sewing patterns: single-wadding and double-wadding. I mainly focus on the double-wadding method as exhibited on the PNS. The paper also provides information on the fastening of planks with other structures particularly keel, stem and sternpost. Wadding materials and fastening cordage, confirmed as Southeast Asian origin, are integrated into the discussion.

Abhirada is now in the final year of her doctoral degree in maritime archaeology at the University of Western Australia. Over the course of years, she has been working actively and closely with the Thai Government in relation to maritime and underwater cultural heritage. She is particularly interested in shipwreck studies and maritime history of Southeast Asia ad the broader Indian Ocean. Her current research focuses on the maritime connections if the Indian Ocean World in the 1st millennium CE through the study of the Phanom-Surin shipwreck in the Samut Sakhot province, Thailand.

Zoom Session Details: ID: 987 4461 1972 Password: 024375

17:30 - FREE LECTURE - UCC Tech Talk #3: Exploring the Tinc VPN : Learn about how to set up a Virtual Private Network using Tinc. Website | More Information
Join the University Computer Club online on Thursday, May 14 from 17:30 to learn more about Virtual Private Networks and how to set one up using the free open-source software, Tinc.

To attend the session, just use this link to join us: https://meetings.ucc.asn.au/b/mte-uta-4ya
Friday 15
11:00 - SEMINAR - Asian Studies Seminar Series 2020 : “Because Korean is cool” Adolescent learners’ vision, motivation and the study of the Korean language More Information
Despite Australia being a multicultural and multilingual country, the number of school leavers who have learnt a foreign language is extremely low. Previous research has pointed to the lack of understanding of what a language represents for its speaker and learners as the main reason for the failure of past language policies. To address this issue, this study focuses on Australian middle and high school students of Korean as a foreign language in order to understand the variety of perceptions that learners have of their future language self. Forty-four students took part in an online Q methodology sorting task and the analysis reveals the presence of three main points of view related to the future language self. The first point of view is related to the enjoyment of Korean popular culture. The second point of view is characterised by the desire to learn more foreign languages. The third point of view is characterised by the vision of becoming a fluent speaker of Korean and to potentially study in Korea in the future. Discussion of these three points of view highlights the importance of the role of the teacher in shaping the motivation of young learners, and of instruction activities able to make use of student’s imaginations in order to build and sustain long-term motivation.

Dr Nicola Fraschini is lecturer in Asian Studies, School of Social Sciences.

Zoom Session Details:

Link -> https://uwa.zoom.us/j/97019686049?pwd=S0x1cHBzU29yblEwMFU0TTUrRWV4dz09

Password: 335442

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series- Zoom Edition : Towards Zero Waste: An Ethnographic Study of Infrastructure and Waste-Related Education in Sumbawa, Indonesia More Information
The overflowing landfills, clogged up rivers, filthy beaches, and the dangerous ways in which humans and non-humans alike interact with waste may be "the most visceral expression of the Anthropocene" (Eriksen 2018). Thus, as elsewhere in the world, people in Indonesia are now trying to find ways to tame their waste. Local commentators and politicians all recognise that the issue of waste cannot be addressed y infrastructure alone. Instead, bins, trucks and landfills must move alongside the shifts in individual behaviour. My PhD project explores the interactions between waste management infrastructure and waste-related education in Indonesia, where civil society, non-governmental and private sector organisations work in tandem with local governments to improve coordination of waste management efforts and to change everyday behaviour related to waste. The project focuses on efforts that are being played out on the island of Sumbawa, in Western Nusa Tenggara (NTB).

In this seminar, I will share some early findings from the project and will invite you to discuss the conceptual and analytical framework that had to be carved out in order to examine the couplings between infrastructure and education. For this, I have turned to the neologism 'zero waste', a term which has also been adopted by the government of NTB for its waste-related development program, as a means to structure my thesis into three main analytics- revaluation, reassembling and transformation- and to extend the scope of the project so as to accommodate a more desk-oriented approach involving such approaches as policy analysis in the light of Covid-19 restrictions.

Zoom Details: Link: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/95457334331?pwd=c1k5QjFMWGhuWUFMS3FocnFIMms5dz09 Meeting ID: 954-5733-4331 Password: 428153

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series- Zoom Edition : Keeping Time: Work, Temporality and Subjectivity Among Independent Musicians in Perth More Information
In 2017 musicians not signed to major music labels, known as independent musicians, constituted the fastest growing sector of the global music industry. Technological shifts have radically altered the political economy of the music. This has impacted the labour process of independent musicians. This multimedia thesis analyses these shifts through the subject of time, by using the concept of time-discipline. Many argue, the attitudes that independent musicians have towards commercialisation, their work and themselves as workers, are changing. Scholars suggest musicians are adopting the subjectivity of an entrepreneur. This suggestion has implications for how these workers understand, experience and practice their work time. However, there is a lack of literature that makes the matter of work time among independent musicians the central focus of this research. Using ethnographic film, this thesis explores the subject of work, time and subjectivity among independent musicians in Perth. It is clear that these musicians are engaging in forms of work time-discipline in response to short-term precarity and long-term career uncertainty. This thesis argues that time-discipline among these musicians can be understood as a necessary form of temporal optimisation, which is indicative of an entrepreneurial subjectivity.

Bio

Nathan Hugh Robert is an honours student. His research examines the sociology of work, time and subjectivity. His thesis project envolves a written exegesis as well as an enthrographic documentary film. Outside of his thesis, Nathan is interested in the subjects of neoliberalism, ideology, creative labour, anarchy and masculinity.

Zoom Details: Link: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/95457334331?pwd=c1k5QjFMWGhuWUFMS3FocnFIMms5dzo9 Password: 428153
Thursday 21
16:00 - SEMINAR - Trash to Treasure: Minimising the environmental impacts of mine wastes and byproducts Website | More Information
Did you know over 7 billion tonnes of tailings and 56 billion tonnes of waste rock are produced worldwide each year during mining and extractive processes.

Dr Talitha Santini will take you on a visual journey to explain the generation of tailings and waste rock, explore the challenges for remediation and closure of mine sites, and present the promising pathways being explored by researchers at UWA for improved remediation and reuse of these materials.

16:00 - SEMINAR - Archaeology Seminar Series 2020- Zoom Edition : Missing figures in the history of archaeology. Why and how should we tell the story of the first women archaeologists in the Pacific? More Information
25 years ago, historian of science Margaret Rossiter described the ‘Matilda effect’: the historical process through which female scientists were written out of history. Although research in the history of science has been working to identify and rectify this bias for the past 40 years, such endeavours have been less numerous with respect to the social sciences. The history of archaeology has in turn produced narratives that are fundamentally gender biased. In the Pacific, the history of archaeology is a new field of research, which provides a unique chance to write a more inclusive and multifaceted history of the discipline from the start.

In this talk I will present the background and rationale for a new research project that aims to respond to Rossiter’s plea to future scholars: “to write a more equitable and comprehensive history and sociology of science that not only does not leave all the ‘Matildas’ out, but calls attention to still more of them”. I will also talk about some of these Pacific Matildas, and what the first clues we can gather about their stories tell us both about the historical place of women in the field and the place of women in the history written about the field. Indeed, there are two sides to the hidden aspect of women in the history of archaeology (or science generally), and both will be explored by the project: (i) what factors constrained women to long remain a minority in the discipline and (ii) why are the women who did manage to contribute difficult to discern in historical records? As archaeologists, we are trained to be aware that in archaeological deposits ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’. In the history of our discipline we now need to be conscious of the voices hidden in the silences of the archives.

Session Details: ID: 939 6035 9142 Password: 969608
Friday 22
13:30 - SEMINAR - Linguistics Seminar Series 2020- Zoom Edition : Understanding How Indigenous Language Programs Work More Information
As Indigenous language loss accelerates, language revitalisation has taken shape in different forms across the globe, engaging people in the task of supporting endangered languages with various language programs. Programs address diverse needs of local speech communities through methods such as immersion, bilingual education, adult language learning, and language nests. While many types of revitalisation programs exist, their success is varied, often undocumented, and hard to measure. This research seeks to establish theories on which methods of revitalisation are effective and how contextual factors of program implementation affect the outcomes. I present initial findings as well as plans for research going forward. I glean theories through a combination of interviews with stakeholders, literature review, and personal experience. I will also seek to establish a co-designed evaluation methodology based on realist evaluation, a theory-driven approach that focuses on not only what is happening in a language program, but more important why, how, for whom, and in which circumstances. Furthermore, in many speech communities, 'grassroots' language revitalisation is taking place (cf Warlpiri Light and Gurindji Kriol). These newer varieties are argued to have the same connection to identity as traditional languages. I will explore acceptance of emerging codes, such as Kriol, as well as how support for these varieties might help increase vitality in traditional languages. Understanding how language programs work, for whom and in which circumstances will enable development of language programs that are sensitive to local contexts and in doing so, are more effective.

Brandon is a PhD Student at Charles Darwin University exploring how language revitalisation works and how to increase language vitality of Indigenous languages. Brandon taught English as a second language for ten years in various places around the world. In 2014, he graduated with a Master of Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, focusing on endangered language vitality. In 2017, he moved to Kununurra, Western Australia to work at Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring Language and Culture Centre. At Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring, Brandon facilitated the Miriwoong Language Nest Program, a program that teaches the Miriwoong language to school children at early childhood education centres and primary schools in Kununurra. Working with the Miriwoong community inspired him pursue his PhD in Indigenous language revitalisation.

Zoom Details: Link: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/95596804710?pwd=YlpqTnBIOUtuOWtsQ1krZVpMaWMwUT09 Password: 239502

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series- Zoom Edition : From Argentina to Australia: A Multi-Scale Ethnographic Study of Argentines Residing in Perth More Information
Abstract

This research project aims to contribute to the understanding of Argentinian migration in Australia. Using Castles’ concept of social transformation, the goal is to explore, from a single case study, how transformations are reflected in the narratives, and how this change becomes a shift in social relationships so profound that it affects virtually all forms of social interaction. Adopting a multi-scalar approach, at micro level, I focus on home-building practices and how the sense of belonging is transformed through these practices. At a meso level, I explore the existence of transnational social and care support networks together with any community formation process. At a macro level, I explore how the temporariness and permanency of the Australian Migration Scheme is lived by this group of migrants. Ethnographic research exploring the narratives of temporary and permanent residents that arrived in Australia between 1975 and the present will be conducted.

Bio

Bernardo Tomás Dewey is a PhD student in the School of Social Science at the University of Western Australia. His research focuses on Argentinian migration to Australia with special interest on home-building practices, social networks, temporary and permanent visas. His other research interest centres on migration, neoliberalism, globalization, inequality and questions of identity and belonging, as well as methodologies in migration studies. He completed his BA in Sociology at Universidad del Salvador, Argentina. He worked for Fundacion Haciendas Maya, conducting ethnographic research in Indigenous communities in southern Mexico. He then worked for the Max Planck Institute in south Buenos Aires, Argentina conducting research on Bolivian and Peruvian migration working at “La Salada”, the biggest informal market in Latin America. After working four years for the Department of Education of Western Australia, Bernardo decided to continue his academic career at UWA.

Zoom Session Details: Link: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/91735014313?pwd=WUxHbzljTHFWRktTTjYrUEhod0RYdz09 Password: 316410

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series- Zoom Edition : Silk Road Geoculturalisms: Building Cultural Corridors of China’s Belt and Road Initiative More Information
Abstract

The presentation introduces the broad methodology of the study, which is oriented around developing the concept of geocultural in the context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In particular, it seeks to understand geoculturalism as a new approach; as a process of ‘re’drawing of geographies and ‘re’organisation of culture in Asian Silk Road cities with Buddhist heritage in the wake of BRI. Using this framework, China’s use of Buddhist heritage as a geocultural form in Buddhist cities of Asia will be interrogated to identify how the emerging cultural infrastructure and cultural economy is transforming these cities into geocultural hubs. A qualitative data-driven, place-based approach will be adopted to examine the emergence and factors that contribute to the development of geoculturalism. This study chooses three Asian cities that are being rapidly developed as Silk Road Buddhist cities. Fieldwork in Lumbini (Nepal), Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Lanzhou (China) will be conducted to investigate the process of emerging geoculturalisms and how this plays across different contexts.

Bio

Rani Singh is a PhD candidate in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Western Australia, supervised by Prof Tim Winter and Dr Yu Tao. Her PhD, ‘Silk Road Geoculturalisms: Building Cultural Corridors of China’s Belt and Road Initiative’ explores geoculturalism as a new approach; as a process of ‘re’drawing of geographies and the ‘re’organisation of culture in Asian Silk Road cities through the use of shared Buddhist heritage. By interrogating Buddhist heritage as a geocultural form, Rani looks at the ways in which the cultural corridors of BRI are transforming Asia’s cities.

Zoom Session Details: Link: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/91735014313?pwd=WUxHbzljTHFWRktTTjYrUEhod0RYdz09 Password: 316410
Thursday 28
16:00 - PUBLIC TALK - Science Exchange Series - The Poetry of Science Website | More Information
Poetry and science might be seen by many people to be rather odd bedfellows. However, poetry offers a powerful tool through which to bring together different audiences, and to give voice to those audiences that are often underserved and underheard by science.

Dr Sam Illingworth will introduce you to how poetry can be used to develop dialogue between scientists and non-scientists, leading to creative solutions to developing inclusive research governance for all.

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