Experience Anu

What if the traditional lecture became a thing of the past? Are there some forms of learning that are better suited to computers than the classroom? Do students want to be talked at or talked to? Technology is opening up new ways to teach and learn and we want your opinion on what the classrooms of the future might look like. Featuring panellists: Professor Sanjay Sarma Director of Digital Learning, MIT Dr Joe Hope Physics Education Centre, ANU Ms Laura Wey Education Officer, ANUSA Chaired by ABC 666 Mornings Presenter Ms Genevieve Jacobs

Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ambassador Roberto Azevêdo delivered a public lecture on the 17th of July 2014 at ANU entitled, New momentum: can the success in Bali transform the WTO? Ambassador Azevêdo discussed where the WTO should go next and reflected on how trade issues might play into the G20 process — a timely discussion in the lead up to Australia's hosting of the G20 Summit in November. Ambassador Azevêdo is the sixth Director-General of the WTO. In 2008 he was appointed Permanent Representative of Brazil to the WTO and other international economic organisations in Geneva. His appointment as Director-General of the WTO took effect on 1 September 2013 for a four-year term. Ambassador Azevêdo's expertise is international economics and he has published numerous articles on these issues. The ANU book with Brookings Institution - The G20 Summit at Five: Time for Strategic Leadership, as well as a similarly-themed East Asia Forum Quarterly, was launched on the day of the lecture. Thi

What causes some eruptions to be more explosive than others? Is it the total driving gas fuel, or how fast the gas escapes? This lecture examines both the volatile content and the speed of magma ascent immediately prior to eruption. Chemical zonation preserved inside glass pockets and crystals provides one of the fastest clocks in geology. These timescales of chemical diffusion operate over minutes to hours in the run-up to eruption. Initial results show that more explosive eruptions may result from higher rates of magma ascent. Terry Plank is the Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. She is a geochemist who studies magmas associated with the plate tectonic cycle. She is known particularly for her studies of subduction zones: the inputs on the ocean floor, the temperatures attained beneath volcanoes, the melting process in the mantle, and the water contents of magmas before they erupt. Plank

Claiming the body as property has been represented as the best way to ensure control over our own choices and lives; a crucial way of asserting our rights to bodily integrity; and an important means of protection against the abuse of our bodily materials by today's biotechnology companies. Refusing to see our bodies as property, it is argued, reflects either a religious view of the body as belonging to God, or a misguided sentimentalism that blocks clear thinking about matters such as prostitution, surrogate motherhood, and the sale of spare kidneys. Since we trade in our bodies whenever we work for a wage, there is no reason to view markets in sex or reproduction as a problem. Drawing on feminist arguments about the self as embodied, I argue that it is indeed a problem to think of the body as property, and a problem to view the body as a marketable substance. My minimal claim is that we do not need to assert property in the body in order to express what we mainly care about when we say ‘it’s my body’, which

The Gender Institute marked its 3rd anniversary on Friday 21 March 2014 with an inspirational lecture and discussion with Sex Discrimination Commissioner Ms Elizabeth Broderick from the Australian Human Rights Commission, who spoke on; "Progressing gender equity and the role of male champions of change" Commissioner Broderick was introduced by ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young, AO who lauded her committed advocacy and confirmed ANU support for her goals: preventing violence against women and sexual harassment, improving lifetime economic security for women, balancing paid work and unpaid caring responsibilities, promoting women’s representation in leadership, and strengthening gender equality laws, monitoring and agencies. Over 100 people attended the event and enjoyed a light lunch in the Hedley Bull reception area prior to proceedings. The 2013 student prizes for excellence in gender research were awarded by the Vice-Chancellor. The Gender Institute extends congratulations to all this years recipie

The European project was an attempt to pursue a strategic objective by economic means: continental peace by way of coal and steel. More than 60 years on, if measured against that original set of goalposts, it has been a successful project. Indeed, the lure of European peace and prosperity has been so attractive that the EU has grown dramatically in the last two decades. Yet Europe has many detractors, who point to the challenges of monetary without fiscal union and responding to Russian aggression as failures of the supra-national model initiated by Robert Schuman. What lessons can Australia’s region, the Indo-Pacific, draw from the European experiment. Mr Varghese took up his position as Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 3 December 2012. Prior to this appointment, Mr Varghese was Australia’s High Commissioner to India from 2009 to 2012. Between 2004 and 2009, he was Director-General of the Office of National Assessments. Before that he was the Senior Adviser (International) to the

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, AC CH, has used a talk at ANU to argue for Australia to step back from the Australia-US ANZUS military alliance. Mr Fraser said Australia made a major strategic error and betrayed its national interest by not showing strategic independence from the United States after the fall of the Soviet Union. He warned that Australia needs to be careful not to follow the US into another war, which could potentially be in the Pacific and involve China. "I don't want Australia to follow America into a fourth war, blindly, unthinkingly, with little regard for Australia's national interest and little regard for our security," he says. His talk, at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy, was based on his new book Dangerous Allies. Mr Fraser, Prime Minister from late 1975 until 1983, drew on his contribution to the flagship journal of the Crawford School, Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies (APPS). In his APPS piece, Mr Fraser writes that the country made a serious mistake by align

Governments and society are increasingly reliant on cyber systems. That reliance makes us vulnerable to cyber attacks, which can have powerful impacts on people's lives. Because of this, in liberal democratic societies governments have a duty to ensure cybersecurity in order to protect their citizens and, arguably, the people of other nations. But as recent events following the revelations of Edward Snowden have demonstrated, there is a risk that their pursuit of cybersecurity might overstep the mark and subvert the fundamental right to privacy. In this NSC seminar, the presenters will demonstrate that managing the risks of cybersecurity involves trade-offs: between security and privacy; individual rights and the good of a society; and between the types of burdens placed on particular groups in order to protect others. These trade-offs are often ethical in nature, involving questions of how we act, what values we should aim to promote, and what means of anticipating and responding to the risks are reasonably

Energy lies at the heart of the world's sustainability challenge. On the one hand, abundant, accessible, low-cost energy is vital for economic prosperity. On the other hand, the world's pattern of energy use, based on fossil fuels, threatens massive future climate change with devastating potential consequences. The greatest sustainability challenge, therefore, is to meet the energy needs of a growing world economy while moving to a safer pattern of energy use. In this talk Jeffrey Sachs will discuss strategies for creating a road map on deep decarbonisation to ensure the world can have the energy that it needs for prosperity while reducing CO2 emissions drastically. Jeffrey D Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, a leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 80 countries. He serves as Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, as well as Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Developm

As Indonesia's economy grows, it is increasingly being referred to as a rising middle power and there is mounting speculation that Indonesia might eventually join the ranks of Asia's great powers. Regardless of just how far Indonesia will rise, its government and the will of its people will become increasingly influential in terms of its regional leadership and the values and norms Jakarta espouses. What are the domestic opportunities and constraints that inform Indonesia's rise and how will various domestic contexts affect Indonesia's foreign policy and the values it espouses? Meanwhile, the image of Indonesia as a more stable and democratic nation has contributed to a significant deepening of security ties with some other nations (such as Australia) and these nations may well grasp the opportunity to continue doing so as Indonesia rises. But how might this be perceived amongst our other Southeast Asian neighbours and how might this affect our relations with them? Within Southeast Asia, what will the rise of

This year the annual Pamela Denoon lecture will be presented by Wendy McCarthy AO under the title: Past victories, present challenges: Has Feminism failed Australian women? Further event details to follow. About the lecture The Pamela Denoon Lecture was inaugurated in 1989 as a tribute to the memory of Pamela Denoon and as a reminder that the gains that have been made by women over the years have only been possible because of the enormous dedication of women like Pamela. Pamela Denoon worked tirelessly to promote equality for women and was the National Coordinator of Women’s Electoral Lobby from 1982-84. She actively lobbied for women’s rights in Canberra during the 1980s and her bequest helped establish the National Foundation for Australian Women and the Pamela Denoon Trust. The Pamela Denoon Lecture is a regular event during International Women’s Week in Canberra. Speakers have included politicians, academics and a few more well-known personalities such as Judy Horacek, Anne Summers and Julie McCross

The Golson Lecture was delivered at ANU by Professor Graeme Barker (Disney Professor of Archaeology and Director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge) on the 21st May, 2014. Jack Golson's excavations at Kuk in New Guinea have been a fundamental contribution to one of the greatest research problems in archaeology: why did our ancestors become farmers? Ten thousand years ago most people on the globe lived by hunting and gathering. Five thousand years ago most people lived by farming, or by combining farming with hunting and gathering. Today most of the world's population depends for their food on half a dozen plants and, if they are rich enough, on the products of half a dozen animals. So why did our ancestors first become farmers? Did people choose to experiment with domesticating plants and animals, and if so why? Were they pushed into becoming farmers by forces beyond their control like climate change or population pressure? How important were hard-to-study things l

Is it time to reimagine how we learn? Should we be moving from lecture halls to e-spaces – from books to tablets?Technology is opening up new ways to teach and learn. It is also opening up new ways to understand how we learn. Australian universities are increasingly rethinking the delivery of their educational programs by making the foray into Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). MOOCs are a growing phenomenon in the higher education sector – complementing existing face-to-face courses and opening doors to students who might not have had the means to pursue tertiary-level education. Will edX and other MOOCs providers change the face of education forever? Join us for a special panel conversation examining these questions and more. Featuring panellists: Professor Anant Agarwal President of edX and social entrepreneur Professor Brian Schmidt AC Astrophysicist, Nobel Laureate and co-leader of the first ANU edX course Chaired by Julie Hare, Editor of the Higher Education section for The Australian.

Is the traditional lecture on the way out? What will the classroom of the future look like? Will the digital world transform the physical world of learning? Will edX and other Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers change the face of education forever? Technology is opening up new ways to teach and learn. It is also opening up new ways to understand how we learn. What do you think the future of learning should look like at ANU? Featuring panellists Professor Anant Agarwal President of edX and social entrepreneur Dr Inger Mewburn (The Thesis Whisperer) Director of Research Training at ANU Dr Paul Francis Astrophysicist and co-leader of the first ANU edX course Professor Andrew Walker Deputy Dean, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific Mr Cam Wilson ANUSA President Chaired by ANU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington