What's On at UWA

Join UWA Sport for free Yoga on the Grass every Saturday! Start your weekend off the right way and join us from 8-9am - no need to be a member or UWA student, everyone can attend, just come on down, sign in and enjoy the serenity of outdoor yoga.

Why not book a table and stay to enjoy breakfast or grab a coffee after class at The University Club of Western Australia - you've earned it! Bookings can be made by calling 6488 4805.

Mr Tetsuya Toyoda is the Deputy Director and Associate Professor of the Institute for Asian Studies and Regional Collaboration at Akita International University (AIU) in Japan. He has taught International Law and International Organisations at AIU since 2007. Mr Toyoda was a project researcher at the University of Tokyo (2006-2007) and an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1994-2000). He graduated from the University of Tokyo and obtained his Diplôme d'études approfondies from the University of Paris II-Panthéon-Assas in France. Mr Toyoda has also written a book on Theory and Politics of the Law of Nations , The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2011. With the rise of nationalism in East Asia, the disputes over those islands have become serious impediments to regional cooperation. One reason comes from the fact that the rules of modern international law for territorial demarcation do not fit the sense of justice of the peoples in East Asia. Please join us for what is to be a very insightful presentation. Moderated by Professor Holly Cullen Associate Dean (Students), Faculty of Law.

Mr Tetsuya Toyoda is the Deputy Director and Associate Professor of the Institute for Asian Studies and Regional Collaboration at Akita International University (AIU) in Japan. He has taught International Law and International Organisations at AIU since 2007. Mr Toyoda was a project researcher at the University of Tokyo (2006-2007) and an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1994-2000). He graduated from the University of Tokyo and obtained his Diplôme d'études approfondies from the University of Paris II-Panthéon-Assas in France. Mr Toyoda has also written a book on Theory and Politics of the Law of Nations, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2011. With the rise of nationalism in East Asia, the disputes over those islands have become serious impediments to regional cooperation. One reason comes from the fact that the rules of modern international law for territorial demarcation do not fit the sense of justice of the peoples in East Asia. Please join us for what is to be a very insightful presentation. Moderated by Mr Gordon Flake, CEO, Perth USAsia Centre.

While it’s not the only type of evidence used in most investigations, trace evidence can provide invaluable information to the investigator and influence the legal process of criminal prosecutions. Join Kari as she details the chemistry behind examining physical evidence, and talks about some interesting case studies she’s worked on where unusual evidence affected the way criminal cases progressed.

To book, visit https://raci-bayliss-2016-uwa.eventbrite.com.au

In the early days of the Swan River colony most theatrical and musical entertainment took place either in private residences or in the Court House (now the Old Courthouse Law Museum in Stirling Gardens). Gradually as the population increased and more public buildings were constructed, further venues became available such as the Town Hall and Mechanic Institute. However it was the first Gold Boom and the advent of cinema which caused custom-built theatres and cinemas to appear on the streets of Perth.

In his talk, Richard Offen will trace the history of the places of entertainment, looking at some of the lavish venues built in Perth and the surrounding suburbs during the halcyon days before television.

About the Speaker

Richard Offen is Executive Director of Heritage Perth, which was set up to show the heritage of Perth in a positive light as a major social and economic asset. Through a series of innovative projects, Heritage Perth is demonstrating that heritage places can find a role in today's society without losing either significance or historic value.

Doors open at 7:00pm. There will be a short AGM at 7:15pm followed by the speaker at 7:30pm

Cost: $5 donation. Members free

A public lecture by Dr Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez, Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology.

This lecture introduces marine environmental history (MEH) and its relevance for marine management. It will present some of the underlying concepts, theories and methods, and present the first textbook in MEH. Case studies from the Indonesian Archipelago will be used to show the practical relevance of information about the past for modern marine management.

This lecture is presented by the Institute of Advanced Studies and the UWA Oceans Institute.

Cost: FREE, but RSVP requested via the website.

Professor Ross Baker together with Dr Quintin Hughes present ‘Another Bloody Breakfast', hosted by Adrian Barich with special guest, former West Coast Eagles Premiership legend, David Wirrapanda.

Come and hear about the Institute's mission to conduct high quality medical research into the causes of blood disorders, participate in state-of-the-art clinical trials and provide education, information and networking opportunities for people diagnosed with blood disorders.

With our strong ties with the Western Australian Centre for Thrombosis and Haemostasis (WACTH), we envisage that our research discoveries from the laboratory will develop into meaningful advances in understanding the mechanisms of blood disorders and translating this into better care for people living with blood disorders.

Tickets are limited so get in early!

Australia and the Republic of Korea are close friends and both countries have developed a strong strategic partnership in the Asia-Pacific for the last half-century. Korea is Australia’s third largest export market at fourth largest two-way trading partner. Bilateral trade and investment is expected to increase significantly since the Korea – Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) went into force in December 2014. His Excellency Mr Bong-hyun Kim will discuss the future prospects of Australia – Korea relations, implications of KAFTA for business ties, cooperation for innovative and creative economy and Australia – Korea cooperation within the MIKTA framework.

The presence or absence of fish in the Tasmanian archaeological record has long been a lightening rod for the broader debates about the level of social and technological impacts within isolated human populations. The narrative has largely been driven by data derived from the Rocky Cape caves, dug by Rhys Jones in the 1960s. More recent preliminary analysis of Sisters Creek Cave midden material, also excavated by Rhys Jones in 1964, has been undertaken. It appears that the evidence for subsistence activities is highly variable in both space and time at the two sites. It is concluded that fish may have only played a minor food role at many sites and its decline in consumption was gradual, over a longer time period, rather than the rapid cessation, as previously argued. The Tasmanian Aboriginal community has supported this work.

The 2016 Grace Vaughan Memorial lecture by Dorinda Cox, Project Officer, Keeping Kids Safe Project, Women’s Council for Domestic and Family Violence Services WA and Managing Director of the Inspire Change Consulting Group.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 35 times more likely to be victims of violence than any other women in Australia. To effect change we need to contextualise the experiences of Aboriginal women with both the historical and contemporary factors that enable gender based violence to continue to this magnitude and within such a small minority group. This lecture will explore some of the questions for this issue in Australia.

This annual lecture commemorates the life and achievements of parliamentarian Grace Vaughan and is presented by the Australian Association of Social Workers, the Institute of Advanced Studies at The University of Western Australia and Department of Local Government and Communities Western Australia.

Human Sentience and Ideas of Empathy: A Neuroanthropological Study of the Sensory Life Worlds of Women With Fibromyalgia and/or Autism Spectrum Condition

This proposed ethnographic study poses the question: How are biomedical interpretations of fibromyalgia (FM) and autism spectrum condition (ASC) in women mediated by cultural constructions of human sentience and empathy? It seeks to understand how notions of what it is to be a coherent, balanced and well-functioning human being, realised at both a societal and biomedical level, impact on the senses of self and well-being of women with one or both of these conditions. I also aim to gain a better picture of the sensory life-worlds of these women, for whom heightened sensory sensitivity is a common feature of their perception and engagement, as well as disengagement, with the world around them. Using a neuroanthropological approach, I wish to investigate the interplay among the increasingly sophisticated neurological understandings of these conditions, the psychological constructs that medical practitioners frequently use in profiling these individuals, and the ways in which the individuals themselves try to form and sustain identities within societal and biomedical contexts that often limit their capacity for expression and being understood. Neuroanthropology is an emergent field that explores how the brain and nervous system are culturally patterned, by “the things that people do and say and the ways we interact with one another and the environment” (Downey & Lende 2012, p. 41). Both FM and ASC have been associated with the personality construct alexithymia in the medical literature, which refers to difficulty in recognising and describing emotions in the body. Both have also been described as featuring abnormal sensory processing, but there has been a scarcity of on the ground research that considers how these people attempt to navigate daily life with sensory sensitivities, how they attempt to communicate, and how sociocultural factors influence communication. This study hopes to elucidate some of the cultural complexities that contribute to the unfolding and experiencing of FM and ASC in women.

UWA School 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.

Join us each Thursday during semester for a free seminar series with presenters from within UWA and from the wider community.

This Tuesday Professor Brian Finlayson, Head of Strings at the State Conservatorium of Corinthia in Klagenfurt, will present a seminar entitled 'Instrumental and Chamber music education: Parallels and differences between Australia and Central Europe'

Free entry - all welcome

Professor Finlayson is present in WA as a guest of AUSTA, and will lead a chamber music masterclass at 6.30pm featuring students drawn from UWA, WAAPA and Hale School (further details www.trybooking.com/182698)

Masterclass: Brian Finlayson (Chamber Music)

Mastery of Technique and Excellence in Performance International artist and pedagogue Violin/Violist Professor Finlayson will conduct a series of lectures, masterclasses and workshops for students, professionals and teachers. Professor Finlayson will demonstrate fundamental concepts in teaching as developed from revered Igor Ozim, who has long been regarded as the European equivalent to Galamian.

In this Masterclass Professor Finlayson will work with UWA and other student groups on Chamber Music performance techniques.

Tickets (available from www.trybooking.com/182698) AUSTA Member $15 Non Member $20 UWA/WAAPA Student $0 Other students $10

Professor Christophe Lécuyer received his PhD in petrology and geochemistry from the University of Rennes France) in 1989, and also obtained a position at CNRS. He has worked as a Research Associate at the University of Michigan (1990-1991) where his research began on past global climate change. In 1996, he obtained his ‘Habilitation’ at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. He became Professor at the University of Lyon in 1999 where he managed the Department of Earth Sciences until 2010. Christophe is now a member of the Institut Universitaire de France and leads the stable isotope geochemistry team at the University of Lyon. His current research interests include stable isotope studies of palaeo-meteoric and marine waters to reconstruct climate and water cycles from the geological record. Earthquakes and explosive eruptions generate tsunami waves at the origin of thick and chaotic coastal sediments. These commonly fossiliferous deposits are formed instantaneously within historical or geological timescales, and therefore have the potential to provide snapshot records of past climates. In Crete, near Palaikastro, a thick sedimentary layer (1 to 9m) was deposited by huge tsunami waves (~10m). Volcanic ash, the geometry, and archaeological and faunal contents of the sedimentary deposit along with radiocarbon dating indicate that the tsunamite was coeval with the Minoan Santorini (Thera) eruption 3,350 years BP. The devastating tsunami wave deposited large rocky blocks and a muddy matrix containing diverse faunas (marine molluscs, cattle skeletons) and artefacts from the Minoan civilization. Oxygen isotope measurements of both marine shells and terrestrial vertebrate teeth and bones revealed that sea surface and air temperatures were higher than today (~2°C), but with similarly warm summers (26°C) and much milder winters (16°C). The eruptions and tsunami events are also discussed in the context of the fall of the Minoan civilisation.

A public lecture by Jane Macnaughton, Professor of Medical Humanities, Durham University, UK and Co-Director of the Durham University Centre for Medical Humanities.

Can the arts and humanities make a real difference to clinical practice and research? This lecture takes up that challenge by describing a new trajectory for medical humanities, which is demonstrating that the field can go further than simply 'humanising' clinical students and practitioners.

In this lecture Professor Macnaughton will illustrate the changing face and current ambition for this field with reference to a new project that is underway at the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham University, UK. This project, the 'Life of Breath', is funded by a Senior Investigator Award from the Wellcome Trust.

This lecture is part of the 2016 Institute of Advanced Studies' Medical Humanities Public Lecture Series and is co-sponsored with the School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care, UWA.

The People’s Action Party, Singapore’s governing political party, has since independence in 1965,imposed strict restrictions on the Singaporean populace. Using direct and indirect measures to manage the city-state, the resultant climate of fear has developed widespread use of out-of-bound markers amongst the Singaporean populace. Still, the light touch approach the PAP asserted it would adopt with regard to dealings with websites and the internet, has encouraged increased autonomy in Singapore’s online sphere. Survey and interview results suggest young adult Singaporeans view Facebook as a convenient and viable channel for the expression of views. Contributing to the opening up of Singapore’s tightly controlled social sphere, Facebook has increased information access, the proliferation of citizen journalism and interest in social issues. Yet, restrictions still limit the extent of openness allowed in Singapore’s online sphere. Netizens are now highlighting undesirable issues found on Facebook and are calling upon the relevant authorities to take action. The bottom-up surveillance occuring particularly on Singapore’s Facebook platform suggests a change in the norms and practices prevalent amongst the Singaporean populace. In differentiating structural constraint from the limits of agency, this thesis is aimed at identifying the impact new media has had on social structures, Gen Y’s construction of social identities, and their connections to Singapore. The implications such changes have had on the understanding of social processes, Singapore’s Gen Y’s participation in civil society and Singapore’s nation building exercise, are also examined.

Be transported from the everyday in our free lunchtime concert series, featuring the finest musical talent locally, nationally and within the School.

This week the UWA Vocal Consort presents Renaissance to Rihanna - a selection of sacred and secular a cappella partsongs that will rock your day!

Free entry - no bookings required!

Free performances every Friday during semester at 1pm and at 5pm! Come and see our young emerging artists delight and inspire!

This presentation will offer an overview of my doctoral research project, which focuses on representations of migrant cultural identities in selected fictional works by second-generation Australian women writers of Asian and Middle-Eastern backgrounds.

My research focuses on an emerging field of Australian literary studies describes young migrant women’s experiences in Australia. The selected works narrate second-generation young migrant women’s cross-cultural negotiations that charter the thematic terrains of difference and belonging. As such, these literary works by Asian and Middle-Eastern Australian fiction writers have attempted to describe what it means to be an Australian in the twenty first century. Women writers in particular have concentrated on highlighting women’s representations and the specific challenges that migrant women face in contemporary Australia. Essentially, these works address the cultural challenges and different trends of cultural diversity among the second generation and the complex consequences of the process of acculturation.

This project analyzes the narrative constructions of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and multicultural life in Australia within the frame of postcolonial theory and multiculturalism. As such, this cultural and ideological study of literary works contributes to a broader understanding of how second-generation authors of Asian and Middle-Eastern heritage engage in representational politics of multicultural Australia.

Biofilia – Base for Biological Arts is a learning and research environment at the intersection of art, life sciences and technology. It offers a platform and infrastructure for trans-disciplinary research and education that aims to create cultural discussion and innovation around the topics related to the manipulation of life and biological processes at a practical and theoretical level, including philosophical and ethical dimensions. Biofilia was launched in 2012 in close collaboration with SymbioticA.

Aalto Biofilia is unique in the world as it is the only fully equipped biological lab that is operated by an art school and based in an electrical engineering building. It offers unparalleld research capacity for the growing field of biological art. The lab is equipped for hands-on research and creative experimentation and it provides the basic tools for molecular biology, tissue culture and engineering and microbiology.

This talk will concentrate on presenting activities and opportunities of Biofilia and presenting some of the work done there or in collaboration in the past years.

Marika Hellman is currently working in Bioart laboratory Biofilia at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Finland as a laboratory manager. She graduated from Aalto University, School of Chemical Technology in the field of Applied Microbiology and she has been working several years in Biofilia and earlier mainly in research groups but also in industry.

The ideal way to start your weekend, Fridays@Five offers unique musical experiences to delight all music lovers. See young artists be inspired through a variety of masterclasses, workshops, pre-concert talks, lectures and Q&A sessions. Delve deep into music or simply enjoy a free informal performance to kick-start your weekend.

This week join contemporary Percussion Ensemble Piñata Percussion as they perform works by Hindson, Pollard, Vickery, Westlake and Xenakis.

Bar open 5pm, performance begins 5.30pm. Free entry - all welcome!