What's On at UWA

#Altac careers have been described as off the tenure track, but within the academic orbit. These positions are serviced by “hybrid humanities scholars” who work in a diverse range of institutions including universities, cultural heritage bodies, libraries, museums, academic publishing, and the public sector. Roles often include a combination of administration, project management, teaching and research work.

This free, 3-hour workshop will explore strategies and tools to help PhD candidates and early career researchers imagine and build alternative academic careers. It will include a panel session with several practicing “alt-academics”, hands-on activities and plenty of lively discussion and debate.

This FREE workshop is designed to introduce humanities researchers to the HuNI Virtual Laboratory.

Researchers will be given an introduction to the contents and capabilities of the HuNI VL, and its relationship to the various contributing datasets. They will learn how to create their own account in HuNI and use it to build and share collections of data relevant to their research. They will also learn how to annotate entities in HuNI to show relationships between them, and how to export information from HuNI.

After completing the workshop, attendees will be able to start using the HuNI Virtual Laboratory as an integral part of their research. The workshop is not intended to be an in-depth look at the technical architecture and functionality of the Virtual Laboratory, and is not designed for technical experts.

Two sessions are being held from 9am - 12pm, and 1400-1700 (the afternoon workshop is a repeat of the morning workshop). You must register to attend this free workshop.

Federated Archaeological information Management Systems (FAIMS) is a National eResearch Collaborative Tools and Resources (Australia) funded project to produce a comprehensive information system for archaeology and related fieldwork disciplines. Through community engagement it has developed flexible, robust and extensible tools for acquiring, refining, and archiving archaeological and related data. It allows data from field and laboratory work to be born digital using mobile devices, processed in web applications (local or online), and published online through a data repository. Means for facilitating the production of semantically, as well as syntactically, interoperable datasets have been built into the application at multiple points in the data lifecyle. Since the needs of archaeological fieldwork and research vary – and because many earlier efforts to construct archaeological data resources failed from being overly prescriptive – the project has developed the core of a federated, open-source system, encouraging the growth of an extensible range of options at each stage of data management.

This workshop follows early demonstrations of the system at the Computer Applications in Archaeology conference (Perth, March 2013) but now presents these tools (especially the mobile platform) in a much more mature state.

You must register to attend this FREE workshop.

The biennial conference of the Australasian Association for Digital Humanities (aaDH). aaDH was formed to strengthen the digital humanities research community and is a member of the international Alliance of Digital Humanities Organisations (ADHO).

Join us from 18th – 21st March 2014, on the beautiful UWA Campus.

This year’s conference themes are as follows:

WORKING WITH TEXT; NEW MEDIA and the DIGITAL; METHODS, APPROACHES and USES; WORKING WITH DATA; BUILDING the DH COMMUNITY and PRESENCE; INDIGENOUS AND CROSS-CULTURAL DIGITAL RESEARCH

All delegates are required to register in advance. Registration closes on 9th March 2014, at 12:00 midnight WST.

Workshops and a Masterclass with Dr Anthony Beavers will be held on the 17th and 18th of March. The Master class on Computational philosophy and the moral implications of automated decision making, held on the 18th of March from 14:00 – 17:00, is at iVEC@ECU, Building 13, ECU Mt Lawley Campus.

This FREE Masterclass is an opportunity for postgraduate students and early career researchers to meet and discuss specific research topics with a distinguished scholar. Participants will be invited to participate within the framework of the topic as part of a discussion.

The host, Anthony Beavers works in the developing area of computational philosophy, an approach to the discipline that involves using computers to make philosophical discoveries that are not readily available with traditional argumentative methods and that also tests philosophical theories for computational tractability. Tony is also a keynote speaker at DHA 2014.

You must register to attend.

Jon Prince

How melodic contour, rhythm, tonality, and metre affect musical similarity and expectancy

This workshop is designed for experienced supervisors of research students at UWA want to update their current conceptions and practice of supervision at UWA, including updates on UWA policies and rules.

It provides an overview research training at UWA and is designed for supervisors of Higher Degree Research (HDR) students and is grounded in the Graduate Research School's Policies and Rules. Supervisors of Honours and Postgraduate Coursework students are also welcome to attend.

The context for further exploration of supervision issues in the Supervisor Development Program, which includes workshops such as Finding the Right Research Student, Student- Supervisor Relationships, Support for Research Students, Supervising International Research Students, and Research Students and Mental Health.

Workshop Description: Supervision in context – UWA's vision for the future. Professionalising postgraduate supervision.

This workshop is for UWA staff and others who are new to supervision at UWA. It provides an overview of research training at UWA for those who are new to supervision, new to supervision at UWA or plan to supervise in the future. The workshop is grounded in the Graduate Research School's Policies and Rules for higher degree by research students, but is open to supervisors of all research students, including Honours & postgraduate coursework students.

The workshop provides the context for further exploration of supervision issues in the Supervisor Development Program, which includes workshops such as Finding the Right Research Student, Student- Supervisor Relationships, Support for Research Students, Supervising International Research Students, and Research Students and Mental Health.

Workshop Description: Overview of research student cohort at UWA. Roles and responsibilities of supervisors at UWA. Research student support at UWA. Best practice in student supervision.

Hanifa Deen explores the domestic and international responses to dissident Bangladeshi writer-in-exile, Taslima Nasreen. Following a newspaper interview the author gave in neighbouring India, violent demonstrations broke out in 1994 and she was accused of blasphemy. This led to an international campaign by human rights organisations such as: Amnesty International, International PEN and Reporters San Frontiers to ‘Save Taslima’. Labelled ‘the female Salman Rushdie’, which eventually proved her undoing, Nasreen ‘escaped’ to the West where she became an overnight celebrity, a much-lauded feminist and free speech icon adopted by European freedom of expression organisations and USA feminists. Her Western supporters never asked why Bangladeshi feminists, secularists and human rights activists never ‘adopted’ her. Nasreen’s brand of feminism and Indian backing alienated her from what should have been her domestic support base. Eventually Nasreen toppled from her literary pedestal in the West, a victim of everyone’s expectations, political manoeuvring and her own sense of entitlement. Nasreen writes in Bengali, her mother tongue, and wants to live permanently in West Bengal, India. This presents difficulties for the government as her presence leads to violent demonstrations by Muslim extremists. She is also famous for her acrimonious fallings out with her male mentors in Bangladesh, Western Europe and now in India. Hirsi Ali, another critic of Islam, has in some respects relegated Nasreen to the sidelines.

Hanifa Deen is an award-winning West Australian-born author who writes narrative non-fiction and now lives in Melbourne. Her books include: Caravanserai: A Journey Among Australian Muslims, for which she won a NSW Premier’s Literary Award; Broken Bangles, short listed for a WA Premier’s Award, The Jihad Seminar (UWA Press) short listed for the Australian Human Rights Commission, Literature Non-Fiction Award; Ali Abdul vs. The King, (UWA Publishers, 2011). Her latest book On the Trail of Taslima was released in June 2013.

Deen has also served as a Hearing Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission of Australia, and also on the Board of Directors, Special Broadcasting Services (SBS). She was the Director of Community Education at the Victorian Ethnic Affairs Commission as well as the Deputy Commissioner at the Multicultural Affairs Commission WA.

Currently she is Chair of the Institute of Cultural Diversity and is also the Editor of Sultana’s Dream, an online magazine written and produced by Australian Muslim women which she founded in 2011.

You are welcome to bring your lunch and join the conversation

In part, this seminar is a travelogue and, in part, it is an amateur study in comparative anthropology. While exploring many small, remote and near-isolated islands around the world I became fascinated by the history and sociology of the small human communities that occupied those corners of the world.

In this seminar I tell many of their stories, mostly tragic, often uplifting and sometimes heroic but almost always the result of clashes with the larger world. At the same time I had the pleasure of photographing and then exhibiting the scenic grandeur of these ocean-bound patches of ground.

In the process I will march through time from the remarkable remains of the Neolithic village of Skara Brae in the Orkneys to the dramatic pinnacle of Skellig Michael off the southwest coast of Ireland, a place that Sir Kenneth Clark credited with contributing to the survival of civilization during Europe’s Dark Ages.

From there we will move halfway around the world to the murderous story of the Batavia shipwreck on the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia and back again to the British Isles for a visit to the remote island of St.Kilda and its ill-starred people. I finish with the current story of Tory Island off the northwest corner of Ireland whose people, persecuted in the past, are struggling to retain a viable existence on their island.

(See “The Far Side of the Sky” at http://www.dankat.com/mstory/mstory.htm)

PS* This seminar is free and open to the public & no RSVP required.

****All Welcome****

The Visualisation and Poster reception is part of the DHA 2014 Conference held at UWA from 18-21 March 2014. The reception will exhibit electronic posters submitted by conference delegates, as well as presentations Dr Andrew Hutchison - presenting on virtual environments from the Sydney Kormoran Project, and Professor Stelarc - presenting a performance art piece integrating immersive visualisation, avatars and body tracking.

Buses depart 5.00pm from front of the University Club for the John Curtin Galley, and return at 7.15pm, dropping off in the city, then UWA.

This is a FREE event however you are required to register your attendance.

A lecture by Professor Ullrich Steiner, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge and Australian Academy of Science 2014 Selby Fellow.

Biological organisms have rather limited resources they can use to build the materials they are made of. Given these limitations, the range of properties of natural materials is mind-boggling, and in many instances not easily surpassed by man-made substitutes. One important aspect of many natural materials is their intricate structure, extending often from a few nanometers to macroscopic dimensions.

In this lecture Professor Steiner will discuss some recent work that illustrates what we can learn from nature: how to make structured materials and how to copy their properties. Some of the examples that Professor Steiner will cover will include: animal skeletons and sea shells; structural colour in nature; adhesion properties of insects, spiders and lizards; and self-cleaning surfaces.

Cost: Free, but RSVP required via http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/steiner

Be transported from the everyday every Thursday in our free lunchtime concert series.

FREE 50min Concert every Thursday during Semester at 1:10pm. No booking required, just turn up!

Have you wanted to find a way to reward or recognise student achievement or progress in learning without necessarily providing marks? Or to allow students to demonstrate achievements that they can use externally to their university study?

Badges are an emerging feature of online and blended learning that are gaining traction as a means to meet this need.

Conceptually, and most simply, badges provide a visual digital image that in educational contexts represents recognition and reward for the achievement of particular experiences, skills, or knowledge.

This presentation is for those interested in learning about reward and recognition practices, and in particular the concept of badges and their use in a higher education context. It will include educational samples, and refer to the Open Badges [link to http://openbadges.org/] movement and the functionality in the LMS that supports badges.

Pablo Spiga (Universita' di Milano-Bicocca)

will speak on

Have we ever tried to count Cayley graphs?

at 3pm Friday March the 21st in Weatherburn Lecture Theatre.

Abstract:

In this talk we give some elementary upper bounds on the number of finite Cayley graphs. The asymptotic number of Cayley graphs is much harder to pin down and we give a brief outline of the main technique and the main ingredients needed for this counting. On the way we leave some problems on oriented Cayley graphs and tournaments.

The purpose of this day is to recognise the important role sessional teachers play in the delivery of a quality student experience and to thank them for their contribution.

2 FREE Lectures - All are welcome! 1:30pm - "Building the Baths of Caracalla" by W/Prof. David Kennedy. 2:30pm - Afternoon Tea. 3pm "Rome, Renewed - the Archaeology of Appropriation" by Rebecca Norman.

N.B. Lectures are FREE, however there is a small charge for the refreshments served at the mid-session break: $7pp (RAG members) / $10pp (non-members)

SYNOPSIS: "Building the Baths of Caracalla" by W/Prof. David Kennedy. Sandra Ottley lectured on the Baths in a RAG lecture in 2012. In this lecture, we will explore – thanks to the work of an Australian archaeologist, Janet DeLaine, the logistics of constructing this immense building, so much of which still survives in Rome.

Rome, Renewed – the Archaeology of Appropriation” presented by Rebecca Norman. Rebecca Norman was supported by a Don Boyer Archaeology Travel Scholarship to spend time in Rome and participate in a course on the city, its development and the survival and re-use of the past.

RAG Summer Lecture Series 2 Illustrated Lectures on The Baths of Caracalla, and Rome, Renewed.

Saturday 22nd March, 2014 1:30pm – 4:00pm

1:30pm - ”Building the Baths of Caracalla” presented by Winthrop Prof. David Kennedy. Dr. Sandra Ottley lectured on the Baths in a RAG lecture in 2012. In this lecture, we will explore – thanks to the work of an Australian archaeologist, Janet DeLaine, the logistics of constructing this immense building, so much of which still survives in Rome.

2:30pm – Afternoon Tea

3:00pm – “Rome, Renewed – the Archaeology of Appropriation” presented by Rebecca Norman. Rebecca Norman was supported by a Don Boyer Archaeology Travel Scholarship to spend time in Rome and participate in a course on the city, its development and the survival and re-use of the past.

N.B. Lectures are FREE, however there is a small charge for the refreshments served at the mid-session break: $7pp (RAG members) / $10pp (non-members)

Booking for catering purposes is ESSENTIAL. Please RSVP by Wednesday 19th March to Marie by telephone 9439 2828 or by email: [email protected]

Dr Mark Shackleton, one of the world’s leading cancer experts is a Medical Oncologist and a Group Leader of the Melanoma Research Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. After training in medical oncology at the Ludwig Institute in Melbourne, Dr Shackleton did his PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, USA. His research has been published in journals such as Nature, Cell and the New England Journal of Medicine. His lab focuses on understanding mechanisms of melanoma initiation and propagation.

A winner of the 2006 Victorian Premier’s Award for Medical Research, an NHMRC Achievement Award in 2010 and more recently the 2012 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year – Mark has had a remarkable decade of achievement. Dr Shackleton is a current Pfizer Australia Senior Research Fellow and a Fellow of the Victorian Endowment for Science, Knowledge and Innovation.

The Speaker: Professor Jane Pillow is a clinical academic neonatologist at the University of Western Australia. She is acknowledged internationally as an expert in the area of neonatal respiratory physiology and mechanical ventilation. She has a particular research interest in high-frequency ventilation, having completed her PhD thesis in 2000 on “Optimising High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation in Neonates”. Since completing her PhD with Distinction at ICHR, Prof Pillow’s research interests have expanded to focus on ways to minimise lung injury at the initiation of life and include high-frequency jet ventilation, variable ventilation, bubble CPAP, patient triggered ventilation and minimising lung injury during resuscitation. She has obtained over $11 million AUD in research funding, including grants from the NHMRC and the NIH, and is CIA on an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence. Her preclinical research uses the preterm lamb as a model of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. She also runs a neonatal lung function laboratory, and is involved in follow-up functional studies of children born prematurely. In addition to her academic responsibilities, Prof Pillow is a Consultant Neonatologist at King Edward Memorial Hospital, where she contributes to the around the clock care of up to 100 babies, including up to 40 infants receiving mechanical ventilator support. Professor Pillow bases her academic activity at the UWA School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology.

The Seminar: Preclinical basic science is challenged increasingly by funding bodies focused on translational research outcomes. Nonetheless, there is little question that the preclinical sciences are a fundamental component of new advances in health care. Animal models of disease offer valuable insights into disease mechanisms, and offer value also for preclinical screening of new and controversial treatment. Preterm infants are a highly vulnerable population, for whom long-term outcomes of clinical interventions have life-long implications. A clinically relevant postnatal animal model offers rapid evaluation of safety, efficacy and long-term outcomes of new and/or controversial therapies for preterm infants and enhances research capacity. The Preclinical Intensive Care Research Unit or PICRU, is an exciting new nationally collaborative facility for evaluation of long-term outcomes of emerging fetal and neonatal treatments. The PICRU will be based in the Large Animal Facility at UWA, operating 24 hours/day for 7 days a week during study periods. The resource intensive nature of the studies makes optimization of research outcomes an imperative. Extensive tissue sampling and opportunities for longitudinal physiological recordings offer possibilities for collaborative gain. The PICRU will be staffed by paid undergraduates, enhancing the teaching-research nexus, and offering early exposure to the research environment. Initial funded studies commencing in September 2014 will target the neurodevelopmental and cardiorespiratory outcomes of postnatal steroids and ventilation strategy in the developing preterm lamb, and how these outcomes are influenced by an antenatal inflammatory stimulus.