What's On at UWA

Research undertaken as part of the Murujuga: Dynamics of the Dreaming project across the Dampier Archipelago has discovered rock art that provides significant new evidence about historical visits before white settlement in 1861. These assist a better understanding of Yaburara life in the islands prior to the Flying Foam Massacre of 1868. Archaeological evidence demonstrates that the Yaburara were using the islands during the late Holocene after an intensive period of occupation in the Early Holocene. This more recent use includes rock art production focussed on the islands’ margins. Amongst the most recent rock art repertoire of the outer islands is a newly discovered image of a ship. We argue that this is of the HMS Mermaid, a British vessel captained by Phillip Parker King in his survey of Australia’s coastlines in 1817-1822. This engraved ship provides additional insights into the cross-cultural encounters documented by King with the Yaburara people. Rosemary Island and West Lewis Island have also revealed the earliest archaeological evidence for the presence of American whalers in North West Australia, created by the crews of the whaleships Connecticut (1842) and Delta (1849). Rare examples of maritime inscriptions, these are, uniquely, superimposed over earlier Indigenous rock art motifs. These maritime commemorations represent distinct mark-making practices by North American whalers encountering an already-inscribed landscape, providing insight into the earliest phases of North West Australia’s colonial history.

A jam-packed program of stimulating performances and events in 2019 showcases the immense talent of our young emerging artists and their mentors, our celebrated alumni, and nationally and internationally recognised guest artists.

From masterclasses and workshops to intimate chamber performances and large- scale collaborations, there’s something for everyone to enjoy, so come along to be inspired and entertained.

This week talented UWA music students compete in the Royal Over-Seas League Travel Award Finals - an amazing prize, which sees the winner undertake performances and training in the UK, with a special performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Free entry - no bookings required

As the number of people involved in interracial relationships around the world has risen, scholars have increasingly paid attention to various aspects of interracial relationships, including identity development and challenges faced by these individuals. Despite this growing trend, little is known regarding how difference is negotiated by members of interracial unions as individuals instead of couples. The current research on interracial relationships has failed to explore the impact of everyday encounters on the life and relationship of their participants. Existing studies have focused on the US, UK and Australia. Further qualitative investigations of Thai-farang American relationships are needed as the contact between Thai and farang Americans are distinct from other types of romantic relationships. The influx of American GIs during the Vietnam War had a profound impact on Thai society as Thai-Western couples became prevalent ever since. Involvement in Thai-farang interracial relationships can also lead to the development of new understandings of one’s racial and ethnic identity. Two theoretical frameworks which are used in this study consist of intersectionality and ecological system theory. In combination with established qualitative research methods; semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation, this project aims to examine the ways in which Thais and farang Americans in interracial relationships negotiate difference in their everyday interaction from a variety of race, gender, class and marital status. The purpose of this research project is four-fold. First, this thesis seeks to explore how they see their relationship and identities within the relationship. Second, this dissertation also explores how others see them and their relationship. Third, this research will investigate how they manage difference in public environments and within intimate relationships. Fourth, this study seeks to examine the impact of everyday encounters on their life and relationship.

If, as argued by Joshua Fishman (1991), intergenerational language transmission within the family is the ‘unexpendable bulwark’ of language revitalization efforts, then what are the perspectives of learners and semi-speakers of Australian Aboriginal languages regarding the reinstatement of language transmission in their own families and communities where this process has been disrupted?

Using qualitative interviews with 32 semi-speakers across four Western Australian language communities - Noongar, Wajarri, Wangkatha, and Miriwoong - my research examines people’s motivations for learning and teaching their heritage languages to children; their beliefs about how children and adults learn language; and the range of influences on these beliefs and perspectives. In this presentation I will present some of the main findings of this research, focusing on what motivates semi-speakers’ to learn and transmit their heritage languages to children, if indeed this is desired.

According to Gardner (eg 2006), motivation comprises not just motives (purposes), but other attributes of the motivated individual, such as self-confidence and expectations. A thematic analysis of 32 transcribed interviews similarly revealed that speakers’ motivations for language revitalization comprised of their reasons, but also their perceived agency, and their beliefs about who has ‘linguistic responsibility’ (Chew 2015) for children learning language.

Speakers’ reasons for learning and teaching – or having children learn – language included those that focused on revitalizing the language itself, and those that benefited the child/caregiver relationship. Speakers assigned responsibility for ensuring that children learn language to a range of agents, including themselves as individuals, the broader family, schools, and the government. Finally, speakers’ motives and their sense of linguistic responsibility influenced their perspectives on their own agency and power to affect their children’s language acquisition.

These complex motivations have practical implications for language revitalization efforts generally, and specifically for the question of what place intergenerational language transmission holds as a method of language revitalization within endangered language communities.

Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, this week featuring staff from the Conservatorium.

Free entry - no bookings required

This paper analyzes the consequences of the 425 drone strikes the US has conducted in Pakistan from 2006 – 2016. The existing literature provides arguments both in favor of and against the use of drones in combatting terrorism: On the one hand, drones are lauded for being a low-risk, affordable option that has killed key terrorist leaders and destroyed their communication channels. On the other hand, the civilian casualties termed as collateral damage are suggested to increase trauma in the civilian population, thereby facilitating the recruitment of prospective terrorists and inciting further terrorist attacks. We aim to isolate the causal effect of drone strikes on subsequent terrorism and anti-US sentiment. To do so, we employ an instrumental variable strategy using wind gust as an instrument which substantially affects the employability and effectiveness of drones, but is otherwise orthogonal to the terrorists’ actions. Data on drone strikes and terrorism are obtained from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), while data from Google trends and a leading Pakistani newspaper, The News, are used to capture radicalization and attitudes of Pakistanis toward the US. Our results suggest that maximum wind gust provides a powerful instrument in the first stage, predicting the day-to-day use of drone strikes by the US. Second-stage results produce a positive and statistically significant coefficient in predicting terror attacks in the upcoming weeks, suggesting that drone strikes encourage terrorism. The corresponding magnitudes are sizeable. Finally, data from Google trends and The News suggest that US drone strikes are increasing radicalization and anti-US sentiment in Pakistan.

Keywords: drone strikes; terrorism; anti-US sentiment

Eocene fossiliferous chert is a distinctive stone used in the manufacture of stone artefacts commonly found in archaeological sites in southwestern Western Australia (WA). Since disputing the ‘offshore source’ theory for this material, our research has focused on the characterisation and sourcing of this idiosyncratic material. These investigations include the use of nondestructive high-resolution X-ray computer tomographic (CT) imaging at the Australian Synchrotron to map and identify embedded bryozoan (and other) fossils within archival artefact samples and potential source material from offshore drill cores in the Perth Basin and from the Nullabor Plain to the east.

In addition, we have begun to explore the South Australian archival records, including from key archaeological sites including Allen’s Cave, Koonalda Cave and Wilson’s Bluff. Preliminary analyses indicate that both the bryozoan and foraminiferal fossil assemblages offer a viable means to characterize and potentially source fossiliferous chert artefacts. The potential for long-distance exchange of fossiliferous chert by Aboriginal people across Australia is supported by the archival records and published documents of Bates, Tindale and other researchers. It is argued that the Eucla Basin was a major source for fossiliferous chert artefacts found both east and west of Wilson’s Bluff. Further work combining biostratigraphy and lithology with archaeology and ethnography is needed to explore these ideas further.

There is a rapidly growing interest among agricultural research to work in international development. Certainly, it is an extraordinary field, filled with challenges, yet bringing enormous rewards. Some key questions that many enthusiasts face are:

How do I get involved?

What does a career in international development entail?

Which organisations exists and what do they do?

If any of the above ring a bell to you, please join us in our next RAID event. Researchers in Agricultural for International Development (RAID) is an Australia-wide network aimed at connecting, supporting and engaging with researchers with an interest in this space.

Please, join us on 7 March to meet and learn from top leading researchers in the field:

Dr Deborah Prichard: Senior Lecturer, Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University

- Prof. Richard Bell: Professor in Land Management and leader of the Land Management Group at Murdoch University

- Prof. Kadambot Siddique: Hackett Professor of Agriculture Chair and Director, The UWA Institute of Agriculture

- Dr Eloise Biggs: Lecturer, Faculty of Science, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment

- Prof. Tim Colmer: Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), UWA School of Agriculture and Environment

- Dr David Mickler: Interim Director of the UWA Africa Research & Engagement Centre (AfREC) and Senior Lecturer in Foreign Policy & International Relations in the School of Social Science, UWA

- Em Prof. Lynette Abbott: Senior Honorary Research Fellow, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, Crawford Fund WA Committee Coordinator

- David Windsor: Consulting Agricultural Scientist, WA Chair AG Institute Australia

Speakers will talk about their own experiences and provide tips on how to get actively involved in agricultural research for international development. The event is aimed at CONNECTING people with a common passion, so we encourage all attendees to participate in the networking after the talks. Nibbles and drinks will be provided.

The RAID team look forward to seeing you at the event!

Note: There is free parking in and around campus after 5pm.

An exceptional ensemble come together to perform works by Roger Smalley including the rarely heard Missa Parodia I & II and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra arranged by Adam Pinto for 2-pianos

Featuring:

EMILY CLEMENTS (FLUTE)

PAUL DE CINQUE (CONDUCTOR)

ROBERT GLADSTONES (FRENCH HORN)

LEANNE GLOVER (OBOE)

BEN NOONAN (TRUMPET)

EMILY GREEN-ARMYTAGE (PIANO)

AKIKO MIYAZAWA (VIOLIN)

LIAM O’MALLEY (TROMBONE)

ADAM PINTO (PIANO)

KATHY POTTER (VIOLA)

ASHLEY SMITH (CLARINET)

and

The UWA Conservatorium of Music BRASS ENSEMBLE

Entry is free - all welcome

Ensure that your literature searching is effective, efficient and thorough.

Learn how to: Develop a search strategy; Identify relevant, scholarly information sources; Use tools and techniques to track the literature related to your research.

This session has a Humanities and Social Sciences focus.

Women comprise only 3% of mechanical and electrical trades in the Australian workforce. In recent years, state and national governments have provided incentives for more women to partake in trades. Additionally, following studies that show the positive correlation between gender diversity in the workplace and company profitability, growth and long-term value-creation, corporations are racing to increase diversity also. Never before has there existed such a strong structural and organizational shift co-aligning with women’s equality and opportunity in the workforce. A new landscape has formed. This session will report on 9 months of extensive fieldwork in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. This qualitative research lead to the discovery of rich life-histories of women who have pursued maintenance trades as an occupation as well as those who have recently entered the field. They demonstrate that women are just as capable as men to fulfil all work requirements. But, why then are not more women participating in this employment space? The research uncovers powerful spheres of influence that should be developing and expanding career opportunities and aspirations for women, such as the academe and the family, but in fact, contribute to confining them. Analysis of women’s experiences reveal a society that from the outset appears contemporary and progressive, but for the individual, notions of belonging and the process of becoming are still very much contoured by entrenched and conventional thought. Bonita Carroll is a Phd student in Anthropology and Sociology.

Speaker: Calin Borceanu (UWA)

Title: Searching for partial congruence partitions in groups of order p^8

Time and Place: 4pm Friday 08 Mar 2019, Weatherburn LT

Abstract: A partial congruence partition (or PCP) of a group is defined simply as a set of pairwise disjoint subgroups which pairwise factorise the whole group. This project has focused on finding examples of PCP that are 'large' in the sense that they are close the best known theoretical bounds on the maximum number of subgroups comprising a PCP. In particular, we focused on the non-elementary abelian groups of order 2^8 and 3^8, where no large examples were previously known. These groups, with one exception, were exhaustively searched for large PCP. In this talk I will discuss some of the theoretical bounds with a focus on deriving results that are useful computationally, before moving on to some details of the computational enumeration.

Since its advent in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been increasingly touted in media reports as ‘China’s Marshall Plan’. Despite these frequent references, there has yet to be an extensive comparative analysis of the BRI and the Marshall Plan. At its inception, the Marshall Plan was unprecedented and is now widely considered one of the most successful US foreign policy initiatives of all time. The BRI is a key element of China’s foreign policy and has been described as the biggest infrastructure-building project in human history. With the BRI being rolled out amidst increasing Chinese strategic competition with the US – likened by some analysts to a ‘new Cold War’ – it has never been more timely to investigate and compare these two hugely ambitious foreign policy initiatives. With China’s rapid rise marking the return of bipolarity in world politics, my research explores the use of economic statecraft within the context of such a fundamental shift in the distribution of power within the international system. In order to adequately compare the BRI to the Marshall Plan, neoclassical realism is employed as the theoretical framework. Neoclassical realism elucidates the systemic, cognitive and domestic variables of great power competition. Accordingly, neoclassical realism allows for the extensive comparative analysis of the Marshall Plan and the BRI on the basis of: the distribution of relative material capabilities in the international system; the impact of political leaders, ideological inclinations and strategic culture on foreign policymaking; and the capacity for the respective great powers to construe or misconstrue the intentions of their chief adversary.

Speaker: Sabina Pannek

Title: Elements with large irreducible submodules contained in maximal subgroups of the general linear group

Time and place: 4pm Tuesday 12 Mar 2019, Blakers LT

Abstract: We refer to an element of the finite general linear group GL(V) as being fat if it leaves invariant, and acts irreducibly on, a subspace of dimension greater than dim(V)/2. Fat elements generalise the concept of ppd-elements, which are defined by the property of having orders divisible by certain primes called primitive prime divisors. In 1997, Guralnick, Penttila, Praeger and Saxl classified all subgroups of GL(V) containing ppd-elements. Their work has had a wide variety of applications in computational group theory, number theory, permutation group theory, and geometry. Our overall goal is to carry out an analogous classification of all subgroups of GL(V) containing fat elements.

During my PhD candidature I examined the occurrence of fat elements in GL(V) and various of its maximal subgroups. I showed that, often, this problem can be handled in a uniform way by considering "extremely fat" elements and counting certain irreducible polynomials. In my talk, I will present this method for groups belonging to Aschbacher's C2 class. The results we obtain significantly differ from the findings of the ppd-classification.

Over the past decade, the Australian education system has undergone seismic shifts with major national reforms in areas including curriculum, assessment, teaching, reporting, funding and school governance.

Reform is strongly influenced by emerging evidence about how to improve schools, advances in digital learning technologies, and evolving ideas about what young people require to participate in changing global societies and economies.

Despite major innovations and disruptions, persistent problems continue, including inequality, underachievement in literacy and numeracy, and worrying numbers of young people failing to complete Year 12.

The UWA Public Policy Institute are pleased to invite you to a free public lecture, where we will explore major issues such as:

- The role and impact of NAPLAN testing; - How well the curriculum equips young people for rapidly changing global contexts; - The contested role of the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR); - How to tackle perennial issues of inequality in schools; - How parents can better engage in school-based decision making; and - The hopes and challenges of emerging digital learning technologies.

The discussion will be moderated by The Honourable Colin Barnett MLA, former Premier of Western Australia.

Registrations: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-future-of-schooling-policy-tickets-56311234418

Brian Pope was President of the Musicians Union and Principal Bassoon in the WA Symphony Orchestra when he developed a noise-induced hearing loss and had to retire in 1978.

At Murdoch University, 1979 -1990, his M. Phil thesis was titled ‘Postal Services in Western Australia: 1826-1901: The Growth of an Organisation’.

He is an Honorary Associate of the WA Museum and, as a volunteer, has tended their stamp collections for over forty years. His The Philatelic Collection of the Western Australian Museum was published in 1991 and awarded a Vermeil Medal at ‘PHILA NIPPON’ in Tokyo and at ‘GRANADA’ in Spain, in 1992.

Brian was awarded the E.M.Hasluck Medal in 1985 and the Australian Philatelic Order Research Award in 1997. The Royal Philatelic Society of Victoria made him a Fellow in September 2012.

He has exhibited competitively at local, Australian, and International exhibitions, receiving Gold Medals at ‘AmeriStamp’ in Toronto, April 2006 and at ‘EFIRO’ in Bucharest, June 2008, for ‘The Half-penny Postage Stamps of Western Australia, 1884-1912’.

Brian is a foundation member and former Secretary of the WA Study Group formed in 1974 and has edited and produced the Black Swan, quarterly, since March 1979.

Brian and Joan met in 1954 at a Uni Dramatic Society audition, married the following year and have become well-used to ‘finding research things’ for each other’s projects. Their house is a treasure trove of family histories, theatre, music and movement education interests and general paraphernalia which ‘often comes in handy’. Together with friends in music, theatre and dance, they instigated the Festivals for Children in 1965, “CATS” (Children’s Activities Times Society).

Currently Deputy Warden, stepping down after four years, Joan was Warden of Convocation during the lead up to the 75th Anniversary, has gathered information on the Dramatic Society (est. 1917); the early years Convocation in Irwin Street and students, staff and Convocation members’ involvement with the Great War. This with Brian’s help, corrected omissions and errors in the University Honour Board. The Armistice exhibition in the Colonnade Gallery at the University Club, is on display until Anzac Day.

Joan was the first student in Arts to enrol in Music 1 (1954). BA., Dip. Ed., (UWA); B.Ed., M.Ed. (ECU); Diplôme Supérieur, Dalcroze Eurhythmics (Geneva). Her PhD (Monash) researched the history in Australasia of Dalcroze Eurhythmics 1918-1928 and gained ASME Callaway Music Education Award. Honoured with an OAM for ‘services to the creative arts’; Centenary Medal of Federation; UWA Chancellor’s Medal; AUSDANCE National Award for ‘services to dance education’; Fellow of ACHPER (Physical Education, Recreation and Dance), Joan was the inaugural recipient of the Australia Council’s Community Arts Travel Fellowship (1980) and co-awardee of the WA Govt. Women’s Fellowship (1984) for research in Arts, Education and Leisure Activities for Older Women.

“Just as well we didn’t throw out those old magazines. Thank goodness our parents saved things and we can recycle facts … we hesitate to think what the grandchildren will do with all the stuff.”

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brom-and-tom-philatelists-tickets-56459461770

For the past five years the Centre for Forensic Anthropology has taken a group of keen participants to Venice for invaluable hands-on experience in excavating human remains. The 17th century plague-grave provides participants with an opportunity to excavate human burials and experience the continuous two-way flow of information between the field and on-site laboratory. The field season includes exhumation (locating, cleaning, documenting and lifting skeletal remains) and site recording (mapping and drawing). In addition, daily laboratory sessions to undertake a detailed study of the skeleton (biological sex, age, stature, pathologies and individuating characteristics) as well as personal items associated with the burials. Preliminary results from the past four field seasons will be presented in this seminar as will the structure and organisation of the fieldschool.

A public lecture by Dr Kimberley Czajkowski, Lecturer in Ancient History, University of Edinburgh and UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow.

The Roman Empire was “an empire of laws”. Or was it? If it was, whose laws and what would the functions of such laws be? The Roman imperial project had a long afterlife in the language and legal cultures of later empires, still felt in the 20th century. As such, it has long been studied systematically as a unified legal system. Recent work has called this assumption into question, and emphasized the pluralistic, multifaceted and even constructed nature of Roman law in the earlier period. The centrally based imperial ideology, in which Rome’s law was a “civilizing” force on her subjects, did not necessarily reflect the everyday reality of indigenous populations in the vast areas subject to Roman rule, with their multiple histories and cultures.

This lecture will consider the ramifications of the Roman “empire on the cheap” model for the construction and practice of law, and the role of indigenous communities in this process: this skeletal structure gave imperial subjects the opportunity to “write back” and assert their own understandings of law and empire. This in turn has implications for how we should understand the relationship between rulers and ruled, and the way that law is both imagined and used on the peripheries of the Roman world.

This paper discusses aspects of Singapore’s early industrialisation (1970s and 80s) and myths around notions of openness (and borderedness) with respects to migrant labour. The paper examines the often contradictory policies the Singapore state pursued in its efforts to rapidly industrialise its economy which required far greater numbers of people than Singapore could supply. Thus, the state found itself heavily reliant on a flow of both skilled and unskilled labour to meet the demands of it industrialisation policies whilst publically advocating for fewer foreign workers – even as the numbers continued to increase. As a result the 1970s and 80s were decades in which the contradictions of its industrialisation agenda intersected with all manner of state border controls and immigration policies (work permits, levies and so on) aimed at regulating and controlling flows of people into the city state.

There is substantial evidence that doppels - words in two or more languages sharing similar forms and meanings, such as English fish and German Fisch - are produced by bilinguals more quickly and easily than non-doppels like English duck and German Ente. Ellison & Miceli (2017) recently argued, however, that doppels are avoided by bilinguals, and that this avoidance can lead to significant lexical change in languages over time. We proposed that while associative memory favours doppels, because of the similar form-meaning connections in multiple linguistic contexts, a subsequent monitoring process results in language-ambiguous doppels being resisted. This avoidance of doppels has been evidenced in experimental work on Dutch-English bilinguals.

The question remains, however, why the psycholinguistic literature to date describes only facilitation of doppels, and not their avoidance. We show that the experimental task chiefly used to examine doppel production, namely picture naming, has standardly been constructed so that only a single response is correct. Consequently, there can never be a competition between alternative expressions of a meaning, and thus doppels cannot be avoided. In this talk, we present a replication of an earlier picture-naming study (Christoffels 2007), but extend it to new conditions where the participants can choose between alternative names for the picture. In these cases, we do indeed find evidence of bilinguals avoiding the shared vocabulary.

We argue therefore, that while the anti-doppel bias has always been there, it was for a long time unnoticed experimentally because standard picture-naming methodology could not detect it.

Linguistics has long described two forces as continually shaping language: ease of articulation and distinctiveness. Where doppels gain in ease of articulation because of their cross-linguistic frequency advantage, they pay a price for failing to distinctively mark the language being spoken.