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Today's date is Thursday, March 28, 2024
Academic Events
 March 2019
Friday 08
13:00 - WORKSHOP - Conducting a comprehensive literature search (Humanities and Social Sciences focus) Website | More Information
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.

14:30 - SEMINAR - The Business of Becoming a Female Maintainer More Information
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.

16:00 - SEMINAR - Groups and Combinatorics Seminar: Calin Borceanu, 4pm March 08 in Weatherburn LT More Information
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.

Tuesday 12
13:00 - SEMINAR - China�s Marshall Plan : Neoclassical Realism, the European Recovery Program and the Belt and Road Initiative More Information
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.

16:00 - SEMINAR - Groups and Combinatorics Seminar: Sabina Pannek, 4pm March 12 More Information
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.

18:00 - PUBLIC LECTURE - The Future of Schooling Policy : A free Q&A style forum discussing the evolving landscape of schooling policy in WA. Website | More Information
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

19:30 - EVENT - Friends of the Library : ‘Brom’ and ‘Tom’ : Philatelists “Coincidences and Connections in our Collections” More Information
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
Thursday 14
16:00 - SEMINAR - Archaeology Seminar Series : Fieldschool and Plague Grave Excavations on Lazzaretto Nuovo, Venice More Information
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.

18:00 - PUBLIC TALK - Law in the Shadow of Empire: Imperial Ideology and Indigenous Agency in the Roman World Website | More Information
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.
Friday 15
11:00 - SEMINAR - Asian Studies Seminar Series : Singapore’s Early Industrialisation and myths of openness (and borderedness) More Information
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.

11:00 - SEMINAR - Linguistics Seminar Series : Facilitated but Avoided: Why bilinguals shun the easiest words More Information
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.

13:00 - PERFORMANCE - UWA Music presents: Free Lunchtime Concert | Pi�ata Percussion : Reflections on Water More Information
Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the best musical talent from within the UWA Conservatorium of Music and around the country.

A sonic exploration of water, reflection and mirrors, using melodic marimbas, exotic gongs, deep drums, pure bells and wine glasses, this program of works by composers from around the Pacific Rim and beyond features Australian premieres by Juri Seo and Viet Cuong, plus music by UWA graduate Catherine Betts. Free entry, no bookings required.

14:30 - SEMINAR - Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series : Torres Strait Islander Cultural Dance: Research, ethics and protocols More Information
Research into Torres Strait Islander cultural dance has traditionally focused on the music and songs of Islanders and rarely on the movements themselves or the cultural protocols of dance. This seminar presents a new Torres Strait Islander perspective on the ethics of research as well as the cultural protocols of eastern Island dance. It is a joint research project with the Gerib Sik Torres Strait Islander Dance Corporation which will result in a co-authored, invited chapter publication in the forthcoming volume Indigenous research ethics: Claiming research sovereignty beyond deficit and the colonial legacy, edited by Dr. Lily George, Dr. Juan Tauri and Dr. Lindsey Te Ata o Tu MacDonald. Specifically, we explore how Islander dance is not only created and practiced within Torres Strait culture but how that information is communicated to researchers. Through this writing, we hope to give life back to Islander dance research by proposing new methods behind research practices while also reinforcing cultural practices.
Tuesday 19
15:00 - SEMINAR - Where to Publish More Information
Deciding where and how to publish is an important step in the research process. Ensure that your research reaches the appropriate audience, maximise its discoverability and potential impact and aim for top journals in your field.

This hands-on workshop introduces tools and tips for identifying relevant, quality journals and evaluating book publishers. We will also touch on meeting Open Access mandates from grant bodies, avoiding predatory publishers and publishing a thesis. Topics covered:

-Identifying and assessing journals -Choosing a book publisher -Open access publishing -The UWA Profiles and Research Repository -Predatory publishers -Publishing your thesis as a book or a series of papers.

15:00 - EVENT - Unveiling of Aboriginal artwork : Harmony Week Event - Pharmacy Division More Information
Pharmacy has purchased a number of Aboriginal art works to be displayed in its building. This Harmony Week event is an unveiling of these paintings, followed by afternoon tea.
Wednesday 20
18:00 - PUBLIC TALK - Italians in 19th century Western Australia, and, how a Venetian industrial chemist came from Kalgoorlie to teach Italian at The University of Western Australia : Celebrating the 90th Anniversary of Italian Studies at UWA Website | More Information
Speaker: Associate Professor John Kinder, Italian Studies, UWA

Italians migrated to Western Australia from the earliest days of European settlement. They were a fascinating and mixed assortment of individuals who contributed to the dynamic cultural diversity of early Western Australia. Against this background, the lecture will trace how Italian became a university subject in the 1920s – at the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne and, before them, at The University of Western Australia.
Thursday 21
16:00 - SEMINAR - Archaeology Seminar Series : Geoarchaelogical investigation of prehistoric site use, occupation intensity and settlement patterns in Blombos Cave, South Africa More Information
The archaeological assemblage recovered from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels in Blombos Cave (BBC, c. 101–70 ka BP), South Africa, is central to our current understanding of the technological and cultural development of early modern humans in southern Africa during the Late Pleistocene. In this paper, we demonstrate that the behavioural changes observed in the MSA record of BBC also correlate with significant shifts in physical site-use and human occupation intensity. Through a site-wide geoarchaeological and faunal taphonomic investigation of three discrete phases of MSA occupation deposits, we identify distinct human campsite activities and examine their spatial distribution throughout the MSA sequence. Considering the sedimentbased observations presented, we argue that people during the earliest MSA phases occupied Blombos Cave more continuously but less frequent. This occupation pattern is markedly different from what we see in the later MSA phases (e.g. M1), during which hunter-gatherer groups appear to have visited and revisited the cave more regularly,and for shorter periods each time. We suggest that the variation of MSA occupation intensity in BBC, which coincides with shifts in local climate,vegetation and sea-levels, can best be explained by changes in local site function and hunter-gatherer mobility and subsistence strategies. We also propose that the MSA site-use patterns observed locally in BBC may be indicative of larger shifts in the regional settlement patterns,and we hypothesize that these could have affected the nature and frequency of social interaction within prehistoric populations living in the Southern Cape during MIS 5b-4 (94 – 72 ka).

19:30 - PERFORMANCE - UWA Music presents: Centre Stage | Pi�ata Percussion : Reflections on Water More Information
A sonic exploration of water, reflection and mirrors, using melodic marimbas, exotic gongs, deep drums, pure bells and wine glasses, this program of works by composers from around the Pacific Rim and beyond features Australian premieres by Juri Seo and Viet Cuong, plus music by UWA graduate Catherine Betts.

Tickets from $10

trybooking.com/BASWN
Friday 22
13:00 - PERFORMANCE - UWA Music presents: Free Lunchtime Concert | UWA Winds More Information
Be transported from the everyday by our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the best musical talent from within the UWA Conservatorium of Music and around the country.

In their first performance of 2019, UWA Winds bring you through a whirlwind of musical variety in acoustic and electronic music of winds from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Free entry, no bookings required.
Monday 25
18:00 - PUBLIC TALK - Unorthodox and exciting applications of solar energy Website | More Information
A public lecture by Professor Jeffrey Gordon, Department of Solar Energy & Environmental Physics, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and 2019 UWA Robert and Maude Gledden Senior Visiting Fellow.

In this public lecture, Professor Gordon will discuss three unconventional, futuristic solar applications being advanced in his research lab:

(1) Solar electricity generation for private, commercial space missions: For decades of government and military satellites, cost has not been an object. But for the new frontier of private commercial space exploration, cost is everything (subject to high reliability). This creates new and distinct constraints for on-board solar electricity generation, where power per unit mass (W/kg) is paramount. The new optics and advanced solar cells we are developing, in collaboration with the United States Air Force, will be presented.

(2) Solar-driven synthesis of novel nano-materials: By concentrating sunlight to intensities thousands of times greater than ambient solar radiation, we have created reactor conditions that are uniquely conducive to the synthesis of singular nano-tubes and closed-cage (fullerene) nano-particles that often possess remarkable electronic, lubricating, catalytic or mechanical properties. The solar route offers the advantages of being safe (no toxic substances are required), far more rapid than alternative methods, and scalable. The successful transition from solar to lamp-driven nano-material syntheses - an exciting collaboration with Professor Hui Tong Chua at UWA - will also be depicted.

(3) Ultra-high algal bioproductivity: Algae have a built-in productivity potential that is hundreds of percent higher than in today’s algae ponds and photo-bioreactors. The key is finding the proper synchronization of (a) light intensity (be it solar or artificial light), (b) illuminated and dark periods for each cycle of pulsed light, and (c) hydrodynamics for moving algae cells into and out of illuminated reactor zones. Our models for achieving these conditions have recently been verified experimentally, demonstrating a factor of 3 increase in photon efficiency. This constitutes a quantum leap from which future algal photo-bioreactors for ultra-high yields of biofuels and pharmaceuticals can be developed.

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