The Precariat: The new dangerous class

Professor Guy Standing, Professor of Economic Security, University of Bath, UK, and Co-President, BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network).

Co-presented with the Department of Government and International Relations, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Millions of people, including many in Australia, are entering a global precariat, part of a class structure shaped by globalisation. This lecture, drawing on a new book, poses five questions. What is the precariat? Why care? Why is it growing? Who is most likely to be in it? And where is it leading us?

The brief answer to the first question is that it consists of millions of people in social and economic insecurity, without occupational identities, drifting in and out of jobs, constantly worried about their incomes, housing and much else. It particularly affects youth, many realising that their certificates and degrees are little more than lottery tickets, leading many into status frustration.

Will the precariat's growth lead towards an authoritarian politics of inferno, with neo-fascist overtones? Or will a progressive agenda emerge in the squares and cities of protest, responding to Enlightenment values and the aspirations of the educated younger generation being drawn into the precariat?

The lecture will examine the labour market dynamics underpinning the growth of the precariat and outline the new 'politics of paradise' taking shape outside the political mainstream.

Guy Standing is Professor of Economic Security, University of Bath. He was previously Director of the ILO's Socio-Economic Security Programme. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Cambridge. He has undertaken numerous research and advisory projects in developed and developing countries, and has written books on labour market policy, unemployment, labour flexibility, structural adjustment and social protection. Recent books include: The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (2011); Social Income and Insecurity: A Study in Gujarat (2010); Work after Globalization: Building Occupational Citizenship (2009). In 2004, he coordinated the ILO's global report, Economic Security for a Better World. He is a founder and co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), an international NGO. He is currently involved in unconditional cash transfer pilot schemes in India.

This two-day international conference being held at the University of Sydney will feature some of the world's leading figures in the field of risk and surveillance studies, including Professor David Lyon, Professor Pat O'Malley, Professor Kevin Haggerty, Dr Hille Koskela and Dr Deborah Lupton. It will also include prominent representatives from the surveillance industry, the legal system, social policy circles and the media.

The group has already received 80 papers from local, national and international scholars, graduate students, artists and activists, and the event is expected to attract around 200 delegates. It is hoped that the conference will position the University and the group at the forefront of innovative surveillance studies scholarship and engage both the local community and policymakers in key surveillance processes, issues, controversies and thematics.

Members of the media have already expressed an interest in documenting the event, and it is hoped that the assemblage of diverse actors will lead to some exciting synergies, collaborations, networks and opportunities.

The conference will feature a plenary roundtable, which will enable the group to showcase its research expertise and activities and identify areas for scholarly, community, industry and policy collaboration.

HUMAN ANIMAL RESEARCH NETWORK SEMINAR 3

DANGEROUS ANIMALS?

When, and how, do animals 'become' dangerous? Perhaps surprisingly, human fear and loathing of particular animal species is a recent phenomenon in Australia. Neither sharks nor spiders were considered serious hazards to human life until the late 1920s. The subsequent stampede to science and policy to quantify, control and exterminate these beasts illustrates how readily 'dangerous' animals have been constructed in line with cultural sensitivities rather than biology. But what makes an animal dangerous? Why do ancient animosities towards snakes persist through millennia, while equally enduring fears of frogs and toads fade away? Why is the venomous platypus considered cuddly, yet furry funnel-web spiders provoke disgust? How do humans decide when it is safe to go back in the water, and why does a howl of 'Shark' empty beaches in moments? Moreover, how does perception or 'proof' of dangerousness alter the moral standing of animal species, permitting practices such as vivisection, culling or outright eradication? Drawing upon cultural theory and biology, history and current policy, this seminar will explore the aversive aspect of human-animal relations, with particular emphasis on Australian circumstances and examples.

SPEAKERS

Peter Hobbins

Department of History, University of Sydney

Christopher Neff

Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney

Chair: Dr Nancy Cushing

School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle

ABOUT HARN

The Human Animal Research Network (HARN) at the University of Sydney is an interdisciplinary and cross- Faculty research group comprising members from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Veterinary Science and the Faculty of Law. From the perspectives of Science, Law, Veterinary Science and the Humanities, both the 'animal' and the 'human' carry different meanings and unique philosophical genealogies, and much can be learnt when these perspectives interact, consult, teach and learn from each other. HARN aims to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue within the university and between the university and community groups, international human animal studies organizations and other Australian University based organizations.

An Arts Matters Forum

Co-presented with the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies University of Sydney

Gender studies is a dynamic interdisciplinary field that examines how gender, sexuality and race structure social and cultural relations. To coincide with Professor Sara Ahmed's visit to Sydney as part of Mardi Gras's Queer Thinking event, five scholars working in Gender Studies will join Professor Ahmed to discuss why gender matters and what gender studies has made possible for scholars and thinkers.

The event is chaired by renowned gender studies scholar, Professor Elspeth Probyn and features the work of upcoming and internationally recognised Sydney scholars and alumni working on projects that showcase the scope and breadth of the field, alongside Professor Sara Ahmed.

The panel:

	Sara Ahmed is an Australian and British academic who is currently Professor of Race and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. She works at the intersection of feminist, queer and critical race studies. Her recent books include: Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects and Others (2006); The Promise of Happiness (2010) and On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life, which is forthcoming with Duke University Press in 2012.
	Elspeth Probyn (chair) is the Professor of Gender & Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney and is a renowned international scholar working across the fields of media, material cultural studies, affect and emotion. Her current research focuses on bio-cultural sustainability.
	Kane Race is a Senior Lecturer in Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. He has published widely on HIV prevention and harm reduction among gay men, as well as the politics and practices of drugs more generally. He is the author of Pleasure Consuming Medicine: The Queer Politics of Drugs (2009).
	Gilbert Caluya is a Research South Australian Fellow of the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia. He was awarded a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) to investigate the ways that intimacy is used to manage Muslim populations in Australia. His research explores the connections between racism, intimacy and security.
	Annalise Pippard is a PhD candidate in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney who is currently researching queer archives and Susan Sontag. She received the 2011 University Medal for Gender Studies Honours with her thesis 'At the Ladies Baths'.
	Jennifer Germon lectures in Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. Her recently published book Gender: A Genealogy of an Idea (2009) offers a conceptual history of gender intertwined with a history of intersex in the modern era.

The event is part of 2 days of discussion and activity on the part of SOPHI's Sexuality & Space working group. A one day conference, 'Researching Intimacy, Sexuality and Space' will be held on the 24th February at the University of Sydney, to precede Mardi Gras' Queer Thinking, held in the Seymour Centre on the 25 February, which features a keynote by Prof Ahmed Wilful Queers: A Queer History of the Will.

Sara Ahmed's visit to the University of Sydney is supported by the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry Strategic Development Fund.

Professor David Lyons is a preeminent scholar of modernity and surveillance and at the moment is working with Zygmunt Bauman. His most recent books are Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as Surveillance (Polity 2009), Playing the Identity Card (co-edited with Colin J. Bennett, Routledge, 2008) and Surveillance Studies: An Overview (Polity 2007).

Surveillance may be a central feature of the modern world, but more explanation is needed. Today's type of modernity Zygmunt Bauman dubs "liquid" and this is worth exploring as an orientation to contemporary surveillance. The key here is the shift from fixity to fluidity. The panopticon was the model of fixity, claims Bauman. By contrast "societies of control" and the "surveillant assemblage" ooze fluidity. The architecture of walls and windows goes virtual. For Bauman it's not just fluidity. The same forces split politics and power.

In surveillance this means that identifying power becomes harder as it escapes into extra-territoriality and confronting it in meaningful ways is at best a multi-level challenge. Not only this. The ethical impact of adiaphorization, in which technology operates beyond moral evaluation, is seen strongly in surveillance, perhaps quintessentially at border controls, where the person is always in tension with the data about her.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series.

Javier Cercas is Spain's most celebrated contemporary writer. He was born in Ibahernando, in central Spain, in 1962. Fascinated from a young age by the works of Jorge Luis Borges and determined to become a writer, Cercas studied Spanish literature at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His haunting novel Soldiers of Salamis (2004) became a great success. Digging into the painful history of Spain's Civil War through the gripping, death-defying story of fascist soldier Sanchez Mazas, Cercas uses irony, paradox and self-references to involve his readers in the creation of the novel, in this way encouraging them to ponder for themselves questions about the vital importance in a democracy of coming to terms with the past and the difficulty of deciding what is true, what is false and what cannot be remembered.

Javier Cercas is the author of nine books and many shorter texts and translations. His most recent work is The Anatomy of a Moment (2011), a controversial prize-winning account of the failed coup d'état in Spain in February 1981. Cercas is the recipient of many Spanish and international awards, including the Premio Salambó and the Premio Nacional de Narrativa in Spain, the International Foreign Fiction Prize in United Kingdom, the Grinzane Cavour in Italy and the Athens Prize for Literature in Greece. A regular contributor to the Catalan edition of El País, he lives in Barcelona.

Javier Cercas is in Australia as a guest of Adelaide Writers' Week 2012. His books will be on sale at the venue and he will be available to sign copies after the presentation.

Professor David Lyon, Director, Surveillance Studies Centre, Queen's University, Canada

Co-presented with The Surveillance and Everyday Life Research Group, University of Sydney.

Today surveillance is central to social experience, both as a serious security issue and as a playful part of mediated relationships. In the late 20th century the language of 'surveillance society' was popularised but now the outlines of 'surveillance cultures' are emerging. The former term indicated a shift beyond state monitoring; surveillance was becoming a general societal experience. "Surveillance cultures' refers to various ways that surveillance becomes a way of life. Surveillance still happens in government, policing, intelligence and commerce but it is also hard-wired into streets and buildings, wirelessly present in smart phones and the internet. It has also been democratized for mass participation through social media. Surveillance practices are understood through popular culture and are reproduced through surveillant imaginaries. This complicates our understanding of and our responses to surveillance. To understand this we have to consider three things: First, what brought us to today's situation? Second, what global trends inform surveillance change? Third, what local particularities shape our own experiences?

Professor David Lyon is Director, Surveillance Studies Centre, Queen's Research Chair in Surveillance Studies and Professor of Sociology and Law at Queen's University, Canada. In 2007 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association and in 2008 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has authored or edited 26 books and his work has been translated into 16 languages. The most recent sole-authored books are Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as Surveillance (2009) and Surveillance Studies: An Overview (2007) and the newest co-edited collections are Eyes Everywhere: The Global Growth of Camera Surveillance (2012), Handbook of Surveillance Studies (2012).

Asialink Breakfast Briefing

The Hon Kevin Rudd MP

Burma is entering a period of democratisation and major policy reform. Australia, Britain and the European Union have already revised their sanctions in response to these reforms. The Hon Kevin Rudd MP made a high-level visit to Burma last year, followed recently by United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and British Foreign Secretary William Hague MP. Economically, significant hurdles remain but many changes are being made.

Recently, opponents of the former military regime have been allowed to contest national elections and hundreds of political prisoners have been released.

The Hon Kevin Rudd MP will address invited guests on Australia's role in supporting this reform process.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series.

A Postgraduate Student Seminar hosted by the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights

The Institute for Democracy and Human Rights will present a day-long seminar with Professor Thomas Pogge for postgraduate students working in the field of global justice/practical ethics/human rights. Selected students will present some of their work in progress; Professor Pogge and other academics will respond and contribute to discussions. The event also aims to provide a forum for students working in this field across Sydney to connect with each other and to build a postgraduate community.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series.

The inaugural Institute for Democracy and Human Rights brings together scholars, students and members of the public to examine in detail the work of a leading contemporary thinker, in his or her presence. The one-day IDHR Encounter includes a workshop (by invitation only), followed by an evening public lecture.

This year's Encounter presents Professor Thomas Pogge, Yale University. He is Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale, Professorial Fellow at the Australian National University, Research Director at the Oslo University Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (CSMN) and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science. Having received his PhD in philosophy from Harvard, Thomas Pogge has published widely on Kant and moral and political philosophy. His recent publications include Politics as Usual (2010); Kant, Rawls, and Global Justice.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series.

Thomas Pogge, Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs, Yale University

Many human beings do not have all their human rights fulfilled. A better world must surely be possible. But who has what obligations to help bring it about? What do we really owe distant strangers? And is this debt measured in resources we sacrifice or in gains thereby achieved for those in need? How are our obligations affected by the fact that so many in our situation don't lift a finger? Is it possible to lead a moral life in our highly complex world? Political philosopher Thomas Pogge looks at the big questions that confront all of us concerned with human rights and global justice today.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series and is co-hosted with Sydney Ideas.

Russia is actively involved in the process of international migration as an intermediary between the North and the South. It attracts migrants from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and Asia, and is now one of the leading immigrant-receiving countries. Many immigrants consider Russian territory as a 'transit point' in their further migration to Western Europe.

Emigration from Russia has also been considerable: since 1989, more than 1.2 million people have left Russia for permanent residence abroad. Russia has also become a major exporter of labour to foreign labour markets. Current estimates are that 25-30 million persons of Russian background live outside Russia. This means that the Russian-speaking diaspora is second in size only to the Chinese.

On balance the country is faced overall with population decline, a decrease in the working-aged population, and an aging population. In this situation, Russian immigration policy is directed not at restricting entry, but at attracting the required categories of immigrants. This presentation will argue that Russian migration policy requires change in the following directions: providing for entry of foreign-based Russians; attracting skilled, educated migrants; inviting the necessary number of guest workers to meet the needs of the labour market; and stimulating migratory mobility among the Russian population.

The Department of Government and International Relations Colloquium Series aims to showcase recent research by members of the Department, visiting scholars and international and interstate guests in an informal setting, conducive to lively debate. It is an open event and everyone is welcome to attend.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series and is co-hosted by the Department of Sociology and Social Policy.

Following on from our highly successful Insights 2011: Inaugural lecture Series, we are delighted to bring you the 2012 schedule. Alumni, colleagues and friends are invited to celebrate four new professorial appointments.

David Schlosberg, Professor of Government and International Relations. From the threat of growing vulnerabilities, to evolving forms of environmental governance, to the creation of new material relationships with the natural world, climate change offers a range of political challenges.

register online at sydney.edu.au/alumni/insights

Professor Diana Coole, Birkbeck College, University of London

Professor Coole's talk will outline her Leverhulme project: 'Too Many Bodies? The Politics and Ethics of the World Population Question'. She will both explain the kind of questions raised by the project and examine why, since the mid-1970s, recommending population stabilization has been effectively precluded, in contrast to the preceding decade, when population had been part of a radical limits-to-growth agenda. In the paper she identifies five discourses of disavowal or dismissal: population-shaming, population-scepticism, population-declinism, population-decomposing and population-fatalism.

The Department of Government and International Relations Colloquium Series aims to showcase recent research by members of the Department, visiting scholars and international and interstate guests in an informal setting, conducive to lively debate. It is an open event and everyone is welcome to attend.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series and is co-hosted by the Department of Sociology and Social Policy.

Professor Ian Shapiro, Yale University

An enduring puzzle of our time is that democratic political institutions often coexist with great - and even increasing - inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth. In the seminar, Ian Shapiro will discuss the limitations of existing explanations of this phenomenon and outline an alternative research agenda that builds on his recent work on the politics of taxation.

Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. He has written widely and influentially on democracy, justice and the methods of social inquiry. His most recent books are The Real World of Democratic Theory; Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror; The Flight From Reality in the Human Sciences; and Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight Over Taxing Inherited Wealth (with Michael Graetz). His current research concerns the relations between democracy and the distribution of income and wealth.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series and is co-hosted by the Sydney Democracy Intiative and the United States Studies Centre.

Dr Astri Suhrke, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen

Dr Astri Suhrke will be talking about her new book, When More is Less: the international project in Afghanistan.

Western-led efforts to establish a post-Taliban order in Afghanistan are in serious jeopardy. Beginning with the dynamics of Western intervention and its parallel peacebuilding mission, Astri Suhrke examines the forces that have shaped this grand international project and the apparent systemic bias toward deeper and broader international involvement.

Suhrke's main argument is that the international project to reconstruct Afghanistan contains serious tensions and contradictions that have significantly impeded progress. As a result, deepening Western involvement in the region has been dysfunctional rather than helpful, and massive international support has created an extensively weak, corrupt and unaccountable state. US-led military operations have only undermined the peacebuilding agenda, and increased international aid and monitoring have only led to Afghan resentment and evasion. Suhrke instead proposes a less intrusive international presence and encourages negotiations with militants to introduce a more Afghan-directed order.

Dr Suhrke is a political scientist focusing on the social, political and humanitarian consequences of violent conflict, and strategies of response. More recently, Astri has focused on the politics of humanitarian policies in the UN system, concepts of human security and peacebuilding. She is also working on strategies of post-war reconstruction and statebuilding, with particular reference to Afghanistan.

She has led several research projects funded by the Research Council of Norway: The Multilateral Aid system (2001-03); Aid in Post-Conflict Situations (2003-05), and Violence in the Post-Conflict State (2005-08). Astri Suhrke has participated in projects commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, various UN agencies (particularly UNHCR), SIDA, DANIDA, the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation, DFID, the World Bank and UNDP. She is a member of a committee of experts serving the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture series and is hosted by the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

SYDNEY IDEAS LECTURE

DR ANNALISA ZANNI, DIRECTOR OF THE POLDI PEZZOLI MUSEUM IN MILAN

Co-presented with the The Power Institute

During the 19th century Botticelli was rediscovered in Italy and England. In Italy this happened not only because of the extraordinary beauty of his painting, but also because it could represent a kind of national art in which recently united Italians of the Risorgimento could identify themselves. Among Botticelli's admirers there was also Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli, who was assisted, in the choice of the works for his collection, by the suggestion of an extraordinary group of advisers. The group included the art historian Giovanni Morelli. Many of Botticelli's surviving works, now in the Accademia Carrara of Bergamo, came from Morelli's collection.

Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli left his apartment and private collection as a museum for 'public use and benefit'. The current Director of the Museum, Dr Annalisa Zanni, presents her recent significant discoveries in Botticelli's use of materials and technique, as in his "Madonna of the Book" of Poldi Pezzoli Museum. In the final layer of this work for the blue parts he used only lapis lazuli, a very precious and highly expensive ingredient, indicating that it was commissioned by a highly prestigious patron.

Annalisa Zanni graduated in art history from the Università Statale, Milan, and later undertook postgraduate studies in medieval and modern art history at the University of Florence. She has been working for more than thirty years at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan, beginning as a curator and later becoming director. At the Poldi Pezzoli she has been in charge of the educational department, conservation, research, and the restoration of the museum's collections. Since 1992 she has been involved in the new installation of the Armoury by Arnaldo Pomodoro. In the last years she has devised important exhibitions, internal blockbusters, following two main streams as the enhancing of the collection and of the donations arrived to the Museum as well as the study and research of private collecting in Lombardy and Italy.

Since1992-1993 Annalisa Zanni has been teaching the history of Goldsmith's Art at the postgraduate History of Art at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. She has created many exhibitions, written books on Renaissance painting, Renaissance jewellery and the history of taste in 19th century, furniture, furnishings, jewellery as well as contributing many essays to the catalogues of the museum's exhibitions. In 2011 she received the most important dignity of Milan, the Ambrogino d'oro, for her important role devoted to the culture of the city.

Dr Annalisa Zanni's visit to Sydney is supported by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Sydney.

Although exceptionalism is an important dimension of China's foreign policy, Dr Feng Zhang from Murdoch University argues, it has not been a subject of serious scholarly research. In this lecture, Dr Zhang attempts to examine the manifestations and sources of contemporary Chinese exceptionalism and explain its implications for foreign policy.

Chinese exceptionalism is defined by great power reformism, benevolent pacifism, and harmonious inclusionism. While resting on an important factual basis, it is constructed by mixing facts with myths through selective use of China's vast historical and cultural experiences. Exceptionalism does not determine policy, but by being an essential part of the worldview of the Chinese government and many intellectuals, it can become an important source for policy ideas. It can be further seen as a normative theory for China's foreign policy, as one among six major schools competing for ideational influence in China's foreign policy formation.

Feng Zhang is a Lecturer in the Politics and International Studies program of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Murdoch University. Feng works on China's foreign relations and the international politics of East Asia, focusing on three related questions: historical East Asian politics and China's central role in it, contemporary Chinese foreign policy especially with regard to policy ideas and grand strategy, and international relations theory from a Chinese perspective.

This lecture is part of the China Studies Centre Distinguished Speaker Lecture Series. Hosted by the China Studies Centre and Sydney Ideas.

Professor Lukas Meyer, University of Graz

So-called greenhouse gases in the atmosphere affect the climate on planet earth. Since industrialization, humankind has added to their concentration significantly, in particular through CO2 emissions. Developed countries are responsible for more than three times as many emissions as developing countries. At the same time, people of the developing countries will suffer disproportionally more from climate change. Developing countries are more vulnerable to climate change due to geographical factors, a higher reliance on agriculture and lower adaptive capacities. How should the remaining permissible global emissions be distributed among the currently living people? There are many objections against counterbalancing past emissions. The main objections include: "Why should I be responsible for the sins of my ancestors?"; "We didn't know about the greenhouse effect."; and the claim that even if a climate change policy had been instigated in the past, would we actually be any better off?

In his seminar, Professor Meyer will explore the possibility that there are ways of taking into account past emissions that are not susceptible to common objections.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series and is co-hosted by the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights and the Sydney Political Theory Workshop.

Dr Carsten Jensen, Aarhus University

How does the institutional context affect government responses to fiscal austerity? Despite the 'institutional turn' in political science, we still possess an incomplete understanding of the relationship between a core aspect of the institutional setting of countries - namely institutional fragmentation - and the policy consequences of fiscal pressure. This talk advances research on this question by integrating theories on the blame avoidance effect of institutional fragmentation with theories on the effect of party constituencies on social policies. The result is a set of novel hypotheses about the conditional effects of institutional fragmentation that are tested empirically using quantitative time series data on unemployment protection from 17 advanced democracies. The analysis show that institutional fragmentation is an important determinant of government responses to fiscal austerity, but the effect depends on the partisan composition of the government.

The Department of Government and International Relations Colloquium Series aims to showcase recent research by members of the Department, visiting scholars and international and interstate guests in an informal setting, conducive to lively debate. It is an open event and everyone is welcome to attend.

This event is part of the Everything Political Lecture Series and is co-hosted by the Department of Sociology and Social Policy.

The School of Social and Political Sciences invites you to an exculsive screening of the documentary 'Human Terrain', a documentary exploring the controversial approach; a new strategy of cultural awareness to win over the hearts and minds of the Iraqi and Afghan people.

Seeking to understand 'why they hate us', the US military initiates 'Human Terrain Systems', a controversial program that seeks to make cultural awareness the centre piece of the new Counterinsurgency strategy. Designed to embed social scientists with combat troops, the program swiftly comes under attack as a misguided and unethical effort to gather intelligence and target enemies.

The other story is of a brilliant young scholar who leaves the university to join a Human Terrain team.

In the course of conducting research on military cultural awareness, he is recruited by the Human Terrain program and eventually embeds with the 82nd Airborne in eastern Afghanistan. On the way to mediate an intertribal dispute, Bhatia is killed when his humvee hits a roadside bomb.

War becomes academic, academics go to war, and the personal tragically merges with the political, raising new questions about the ethics, effectiveness and high costs of counterinsurgency.

Professor James Der Derian is a Watson Institute Professor (Research) of International Studies at Brown University, where he leads a research initiative, "Global Engagement Through Innovative Media." He is author most recently of Virtuous War: Mapping the Militart-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network (Routledge, 2nd ed. 2009).

Come to a free screening of a new Australian film, Careless Love, the week before it is released nationally in movie theatres around the country.

When Linh, an Australian Vietnamese university student secretly starts part-time work as an escort she tries to keep her two lives in separate compartments but it doesn't take long for the worlds to collide.

Careless Love was filmed on a number of locations at the University of Sydney in early 2011, including the Woolley Building, the Schaeffer library, the Quadrangle and the Front Lawn. A number of University of Sydney students appeared as extras in the film.

John Duigan, the director, will attend this screening and participate with audience members in a Q&A session afterwards.

A joint presentation by John Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, Professors of Anthropology and Social Sciences at the University of Chicago

Co-presented with the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Ancient History and Classics, University of Sydney

The politics of cultural identity, far from receding with the modernity, appears to have taken on new force in the wake of the cold war - especially with the triumphal rise of neoliberal capitalism on a global scale. This has yielded many efforts to explain the continued salience of ethnicity in a "new" world order that, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was widely predicted to dissolve difference in the face of global flows of people, objects, currencies, signs, styles, desires. Less attention, however, has been paid to a subtle shift in the nature of ethnicity: its commodification.

This lecture is devoted to showing that, increasingly, ethnic groups across the planet are beginning to act like corporations that own a "natural" copyright to their "culture" and "cultural products" - framed in terms, also, of heritage and indigenous knowledge - which they protect, often by recourse to the law, and on which they capitalize in much the same way as do incorporated businesses in the private sector. Why is this occurring? What are its political, economic, social, and ethical consequences? How is it transforming the nature of ethnicity and citizenship in the nation-state? And what are its theoretical implications for understanding such foundational social science concepts as culture and identity? These are the questions that will be addressed by distinguished anthropologists Professors Jean and John Comaroff in their presentation for Sydney Ideas.

Jean Comaroff is Bernard E. & Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College, and in the Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Chicago. She has conducted fieldwork in southern Africa and Great Britain and is interested in colonialism, modernity, ritual, power, and consciousness. Her specific foci of study have included the religion of the Southern Tswana peoples (past and present); colonialism and Christian evangelism and liberation struggles in southern Africa; healing and bodily practice, and the making of local worlds in the wake of global "modernity" and commodification.

John Comaroff is the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College at the University of Chicago. He does research in southern Africa, concentrating on the Tswana peoples and is is interested in colonialism, postcoloniality, modernity, neoliberalism, social theory, and the history of consciousness; in politics, law, and historical anthropology.

The visit of Professors Jean and John Comaroff is jointly sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the China Studies Centre, the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI), the School of Social and Political Sciences (SSPS) and CCANESA; at the University of Sydney.

Follow Orpheus into the Underworld and experience poetry as never before with five of Australia's leading poets: David Brooks, David Malouf, Brenda Saunders, Judith Beveridge and Mark Tredinnick in the Cathedral Cave at Jenolan Caves, Oberon.

Meet the poets in Caves House after the event.

Presented with Varuna, The Writers' House.

Sydney Writers' Festival is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Over the last seventy years Australia has produced some of the most extraordinary literary hoaxes and misrepresentations of its time - the Ern Maley Hoax, the B. Wongar mystery, the Demidenko/Darville affair. Why might this be? What might thy be telling us about ourselves and about the nation? Could it be that they have been offering us some gifts and insights that we are only just now learning to receive? David Brooks discusses his book The Sons of Clovis, adding some curious footnotes and exploring some of its deeper themes.

Sydney Writers' Festival is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Thinking about a career in a community-based service role at a local level? Does working in a community development role sound appealing? Come along and hear from a panel of speakers from a range of services including those working with the homeless, employment services, disadvantaged people, youth, Indigenous people, migrant services, healthcare, education and people with a disability. This session is for students from any degree who are interested in contributing to the community in both paid and volunteer roles as they progress in their career.

Our guest speakers work in positions where they make a positive difference to peoples' lives on a daily basis. Some work in direct service provision such as case management, support and counselling; and others in broader program roles such as policy development, research, analysis and management. Our guest panel includes:

Southern Community Care Development - Diane Brooks, Community Development Officer and Workforce Working Group Project Officer

Wesley Mission - Nigel Lindsay, Executive Manager, Child and Youth Mentoring Services, Carlingford

Department of Human Services - Loret Barto, Social Worker Team Manager.

Come along and find out about: potential employers and the range of degrees they are seeking; volunteering and paid opportunities and how to develop relevant skills; the rewards of the role, career development opportunities; personal motivation and avoiding burn out; advice experienced professionals in the industry have for new graduates; local, state, national and international perspectives and key issues facing the industry.

This event supports National Career Development Week 14-20 May 2012.

Ever since Occupy Wall Street began on September 17, 2011 in Zucotti Park near Wall Street in New York, the idea of 99 per cent standing up against the 1 per cent who control the wealth and monopolise global decision-making has taken off around the world. Will this movement last? Can it change the world? How can writers engage? Italian writer on economics and politics and author of Maonomics, Rogue Economics and 10 Years That Shook the World, Loretta Napoleoni is a strong supporters of the movement. Chad Harbach, author of the stunning debut novel The Art of Fielding is one of hundreds of authors to join Occupy Writers. John Keane, founder of the Sydney Democracy Initiative, coined the term "monitory democracy" to describe the phenomenon of permanent public scrutiny by citizens. They talk to the University of Sydney's Simon Tormey.

Sydney Writers' Festival is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Gig Ryan recently published New and Selected Poems, a landmark collection, and Kate Lilley launches her new book of poems, Ladylike. Join two of Australia's foremost poets in what is bound to be a memorable hour of reading and conversation.

Sydney Writers' Festival is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

The 2012 US Presidential election is shaping up to be one of the most fascinating in recent history, with the incumbent, Barack Obama, America's first African-American President set to break the $1 billion barrier in campaign spending, while the Republicans scramble to unite behind a candidate despite the woeful US economy and Obama's low ratings. Predictions are hazardous at this stage of the race but our panel will have a stab at it: Joe McGinniss, author of The Selling of the President and The Rogue, his biography of Sarah Palin, the University of Sydney's David Smith and journalist Annie Groer cast their predictions. Chair: Julia Baird.

Sydney Writers' Festival is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

The great poet, playwright and prose writer, who died 10 years ago, would have turned 89 on May 21. Join this very special tribute to her memory led by her daughter, poet Kate Lilley.

Sydney Writers' Festival is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

How is it that our supposedly liberal democratic governments engage in torture? What does it say about our political culture that this is an acceptable way to fight terrorism? Or is it? Former CIA interrogator Glenn Carle is a strong critic of US government practice. He talks with Danielle Celermajer, who is heading up a major research project looking at the prevention of torture.

Sydney Writers' Festival is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

How does Australian poetry compare? Is it up to the standard in the rest of the Anglosphere? How does it stack up against other world poetries? Geoffrey Lehman and Robert Gray, editors of Australian Poetry Since 1788, hailed as the definitive anthology of our native verse, talk to the recently appointed Professor of Poetry at the University of Sydney, Barry Spurr.

Sydney Writers' Festival is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

From forms and functions of the short story to the architectonics of the novel; from sentence to chapter to finished plot: a half-day workshop with the author of The Umbrella Club and The Fern Tattoo.

This workshop is part anything-goes discussion, part close textual and stylistic work. Bring two pages of your own work, and a willingness to respond to the work of others as you'd have them respond to yours.

Duration: 3 hours

Maximum capacity: 16 participants

Supported by Pantera Press.

Sydney Writers' Festival is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Does a career in International Aid and Development work appeal to you? Are you keen to use your skills to benefit those in developing communities? This session is for students who are interested in working on international programs designed to support disadvantaged communities. Hear about the variety of career pathways possible in this field from case workers, program managers, operation managers and recruiters from key organisation in this field. International Aid and Development work is a diverse and rewarding career and students from any degree are welcome to attend this event. Our guest panel includes:

The Fred Hollows Foundation - Barnaby Caddy, Program Coordinator

UNICEF - Negaya Chorley, Advocacy Manager

Caritas Australia - Ranmal Samarawickrama, Program Group Leader

ChildFund Australia - Mai Nguyen, International Program Assistant and Kelly Royds, Program Coordinator.

Come along and find out about: the types of work available for students/graduates in International Aid and tips of how to get into the industry; clarifcation on government, commercial and non-government agencies involved in International Aid; degrees most in demand by these organisations; the reality vs the idealism of working in International Aid; gaining experience, paid and non-paid work; working in the field and working 'behind the scenes' in policy, research, monitoring and support; key websites eg. directory of organisations, peak bodies, job boards, examples of projects undertaken.

This event supports National Career Development Week 14-20 May 2012.

This event has been organised in collaboration with School of Social & Political Sciences and the Global Social Justice Network.

John Keane, Professor of Politics and Director, Sydney Democracy Institute. We're living in a new era of large-scale catastrophes, whose causes and remedies demand bold new political thinking.

Register online at sydney.edu.au/alumni/insights

A One Just World Forum at the University of Sydney

Hunger is the world's number one health risk. It kills more people every year than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. The world produces enough food to feed everyone yet one in seven people on our planet go to bed hungry each night.

In recent years, this problem has been compounded by changing weather conditions, escalating food prices, the global financial crisis, and the soaring demand for land as investors look for places to grow food for export, biofuels, or as an investment.

For already impoverished communities, this means that not only has land become even more out of reach, but all too often people are kicked off their land, in some cases forcibly and without compensation, after having been there for several generations. Loss of land can also deeply affect identity and connection to culture and tradition. For women, who have key responsibilities for feeding their families and for sustaining culture, loss of rights and access to land poses a huge challenge.

Competition for land is a constant factor in human history. It's not necessarily a problem when wealthy companies invest in agricultural land in poor countries for commercial use. But when families are displaced with nowhere to go, people are unable to feed themselves and livelihoods are taken away as a result, that's a very big problem indeed.

By 2050, it is estimated that demand for food will have grown by 70% globally. Can we meet this demand? How can we manage competition for land in a way that is fair to those who have the least power? And what are the rights and responsibilities of corporate investors?

What can we do to help prevent further abuse of human rights, displacement and to ensure that poor communities can access land to grow food and generate income?

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

Dr Alana Mann (Moderator) is a lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. The focus of her research is the strategic communication between peoples' movements, NGOs and other actors in agrarian reform and food politics.

Elizabeth Tongne is the Executive Officer for Wide Bay Conservation Association, a PNG community organisation specifically supporting clan groups in taking ownership of their clan land and resources, within a matrilineal society.

Kelly Dent leads the Economic Justice team at Oxfam Australia. She works on agriculture and sustainable livelihoods, climate change, trade and investment, and labour rights.

Michael Whitehead is Director of Agribusiness Research with the ANZ Insights team. His work focuses on mapping industry trends and analysing the impact of changes on stakeholders across the agribusiness sector.

This event is free and open to all. Please register attendance on the One Just World Forum Website.

This One Just World Forum is supported by Oxfam Australia

The Greek Financial and Political Crisis: the view from Australia

A Humanities and Social Sciences Division co-presentation

As the Greek fiscal situation threatens to envelop the whole country in political crisis, Australians with a connection to Greece watch the unfolding events with a mixture of anxiety and despair. Financial crisis followed by political instability, the rise of right-wing extremism and the collapse of the traditional system of governance create an explosive mixture of circumstances that could lead the country out of the European Union and the Euro. An isolated Greece in a state of bankruptcy looks like more than a possibility on the horizon today.

The University of Sydney brings together a panel of Australian commentators with a spectrum of views and opinions on the way forward for the country of their ancestors.

Introduction by Professor Jeff Riegel, Head of the School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney

Panellists:

* Associate Professor Vras Karalis, Department of Modern Greek, School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (Moderator)

* Professor Tony Aspromourgos, School of Economics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

* The Hon. Sophie Cotsis MLC, NSW Parliament

* Mr Vassileios M. Tolios, The Consul General for Greece, Sydney Consulate General

* The Hon. Maria Vamvakinos MP, Federal Member for Calwell, Victoria

Co-presented with the Writing Hub, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

As momentum builds in a US Presidential election year, women's issues are emerging as a key campaign agenda in response to resurfacing debates over reproductive rights, equality, and general wellbeing. Recent legislation in conservative states points to an attack on women that goes well beyond the usual issues of abortion and birth control to call into question basic freedoms, such as access to health care, the right to equal pay for equal work, and protection from domestic violence.

Leola Reis has been at the fore of these debates in her role as Vice President of External Affairs for Planned Parenthood Southeast and has witnessed firsthand the power of language to effect legislative decisions. She joins George Pullman, Professor of Rhetoric at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA; and University of Sydney academics interested in gender, rhetoric and politics: Dr Rebecca Sheehan, Dr Susan Thomas, and Dr Benjamin Miller for an another informative and thought-provoking Sydney Ideas forum.

Panellists

Leola Reis

Leola Reis is Vice President of External Affairs for Planned Parenthood, a US based health care provider, educator, and passionate advocate for vital reproductive health care and sex education. Planned Parenthood has promoted a commonsense approach to women's health and well-being, based on respect for each individual's right to make informed, independent decisions about health, sex, and family planning. Leola supervises health education programs and sexual health trainings as well as being a spokesperson for the organisation.

Professor George Pullman

George Pullman is Professor of Rhetoric in the Department of English at Georgia State University in Atlanta, and the director of the University's Center for Instructional Innovation. His fields of inquiry are the history of rhetoric, web-based learning environments, and faculty development. He is currently completing a textbook in the history, theory, and practice of persuasion.

Rebecca Sheehan

Rebecca Sheehan is Lecturer in US History at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Her research on gender and sexuality links the present-day status of women to the 1970s when the interactions of feminism, rock music, evangelical religion, and market forces forged a paradoxical sexual order in which an increasingly permissive sexual culture inspired an evangelical awakening, women were more sexually liberated but also less free, and homosexuals gained greater visibility but were denied civil rights.

Benjamin Miller

Benjamin Miller is Associate Director of the Writing Hub, and his teaching and research focus on the way preconceived notions of self and other shape cross-cultural communication. His work considers how rhetorical studies can illuminate who we are and how we see each other to reveal the intricate processes of cross-cultural communication.

Susan Thomas

Susan Thomas is Founding Director of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Writing Hub and Writing Program. Her teaching and research have focused primarily on theories and practices of rhetoric and writing, and she has published on American political rhetoric and Presidential oratory.

The relationship between the concept of culture and that of human rights has long been complex and contentious. For anthropologists the effects of this symbiotic relationship between culture and human rights can be traced at a number of different levels. It has been a key point of debate in the development of anthropological codes of ethics. Human rights, in its discursive and institutional contexts, has become another thematic aspect of anthropologists' subject matter - rights have been assimilated to culture. The capacity to participate in the dialogue between rights and culture has become integral to the political negotiation of fieldwork in many contemporary contexts, and of its ethical evaluation. Nevertheless, distinctively historical and political perspectives in anthropological writing have also generated substantial critiques, not only of human rights discourse, but of the ways it has been mobilised in particular social and political contexts.

Call for Papers

For this symposium we seek presentations of a maximum of 20 minutes in length, that open both the apparent hostility, and, at the same time, mutual dependence of cultural and rights-based perspectives to inquiry.

Please send title and abstracts to: anthropologysymposium2012@gmail.com before Monday 30 April 2012.

This symposium is hosted by the Department of Anthropology.

'Media @ Sydney' presents

'Visualising truths: Rethinking war imagery in the digital era'

Professor Stuart Allan (Bournemouth, UK)

Visual imagery of warfare is a routine, everyday feature of our news media. For the photographer confronted with the challenge of bearing witness to conflict on our behalf, the effort to record its human consequences raises important issues of interpretation. This paper seeks to show how familiar assumptions about photojournalism's capacity to represent violence in an impartial manner are being decisively recast by the 'digital revolution' in photographic technologies. In examining 'our camera-mediated knowledge of war,' to use Susan Sontag's phrase, it explores a number of questions confronting the photojournalist - both professional and amateur alike - committed to 'making real' the horrors of human suffering. Evidence is drawn from several case studies in order to assess the implications of digitalization for the future of photojournalism in wartime, with particular attention devoted to photojournalism's moral responsibilities where visual truth-telling is concerned.

About the presenter:

Stuart Allan is Professor of Journalism in the Media School, Bournemouth University, where is also Director of the Centre for Journalism and Communication Research. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including Digital War Reporting (co-authored with D. Matheson, Polity, 2009), Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives (co-edited with E. Thorsen, Peter Lang, 2009), The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism (2010) and Journalism After September 11 (co-edited with B. Zelizer, second edition, Routledge, 2011). His most recent book, Citizen Witnessing: Revisioning Journalism in Times of Crisis, will be published by Polity later this year.

Media @ Sydney is presented by the Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney: For further information, contact Lukasz Swiatek (lukasz.swiatek@sydney.edu.au) or Tim Dwyer (timothy.dwyer@sydney.edu.au).

Celebrated historian, Professor Iain McCalman, from the Department of History, talks about the work of the scientists and artists of HMS Fly (1842-45).

Like many Europeans who voyaged through the Torres Strait in the 19th century, HMS Fly's scientists, officers and artists were enthralled with the dynamic culture of the islanders and Aboriginal people they met.

Professor McCalman is a Professional Research Fellow and Australian Research Council Federation Fellow.

The OCIS is Oceania's largest conference on International Relations and International Studies. This year's conference, the fifth, builds on previous successful conferences held in Australia (ANU 2004, Melbourne 2006, University of Queensland 2008) and New Zealand (University of Auckland and Victoria University 2010), will be held in Sydney for the first time.

The conference brings together the growing number of researchers in Australia and the region, working on International Studies. OCIS V is a general conference and addresses a wide range of themes ranging from Asia Pacific issues, gender and feminism, global governance, international law and international society, to international security, justice and rights, normative theory, international ethics, international history, diplomacy and foreign policy, to name but a few.

This year's keynote speaker will be Professor Michael C Williams, Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. Professor Williams' research interests are in International Relations theory, security studies, and political thought.

Registration for the conference is now open.

The Oceanic Conference on International Studies (OCIS) is the region's largest conference on international relations and international studies. In 2012 it will be held in Sydney for the first time, hosted by the University of Sydney along with the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University.

OCIS brings together the growing number of international studies researchers working in Australia and the region. Presentations in 2012 will address a wide range of themes including Asia-Pacific issues, gender and feminism, global governance, international law and society, international security, justice and rights, normative theory, international ethics, international history, diplomacy and foreign policy.

The keynote speaker will be Professor Michael C Williams from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Professor Williams' research interests include international relations theory, security studies and political thought. He was previously professor of international politics at the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth, and has been a visiting fellow at the universities of Cape Town and Copenhagen and at the European University Institute in Florence.

Conference registration opens on 1 December 2011.

On 5th March 2012, the US-based non-government organisation Invisible Children released a 29 minute video entitled 'Kony 2012' on YouTube. Four months later, millions of people worldwide have viewed the viral video and its campaign call to capture the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, to face justice at the International Criminal Court.

But while the 'Kony 2012' campaign may be motivated by sincere humanitarian concerns, the message was oversimplified, misleading, and potentially dangerous.

Dr Wendy Lambourne from the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney joins Ugandan political activist Geoffrey Onen for the 'Politics in the Pub' series event, 'KONY 2012' - Fact and Fiction in Post-Colonial Central Africa

This conversation will discuss the challenges and weaknesses in Australian foreign policy on such issues as peacebuilding and development, as well as international justice for war criminals such as Jospeh Kony. Why do foreign policies fail to prevent mass human rights atrocities like Rwanda, Darfur and Syria, and instead often end up picking up the pieces? And when we do intervene, how do we justify the use of force which might cause more human rights violations, such as in Kosovo, Iraq and Libya, that undermine peacebuilding that addresses the root causes of the conflict?

Encompassing the perspectives of Geoffrey Onen, from Gulu in Northern Uganda, this discussion will include the views of those directly affected by the 'Kony 2012' campaign to highlight the current needs of people in northern Uganda and other hotspots of human rights violations.