UNSW Centre for Ideas

"The mind-bending science of sex shows that in the future we are likely to live in a world where there are either multiple sex and gender categories – or, preferably, none."
Emma A Jane is a Senior Lecturer in the School of the Arts & Media, UNSW Sydney. Emma’s research focuses on the social and ethical implications of emerging technologies. Prior to joining academia, Emma spent 25 years working in the print, broadcast, and electronic media, winning multiple awards for her writing and investigative reporting.
This talk and interview are part of Unsomnia: a series of short talks for restless minds.
Tackling the issues that keep us up at night, imagining the inconceivable and envisioning the future, UNSW researchers have just 10 minutes each to explain what life we will be living in the future.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of UNSW Sydney, researchers were asked to take stock of what society used to be, fast forward to today’s world and look ahead another 70 years.
Hosted by Rob Brooks.

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The destruction of our cultural heritage, and our shared humanity embedded within, might not be inevitable if we rethink our relationship with culture.
Lucas Lixinski is an Associate Professor at UNSW Law. Lucas’ research focuses on international law, primarily international cultural heritage law and international human rights law. His latest monograph, International Heritage Law for Communities Exclusion and Re-Imagination, was published in May 2019 by Oxford University Press.
This talk and interview are part of Unsomnia: a series of short talks for restless minds.
Tackling the issues that keep us up at night, imagining the inconceivable and envisioning the future, UNSW researchers have just 10 minutes each to explain what life we will be living in the future.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of UNSW Sydney, researchers were asked to take stock of what society used to be, fast forward to today’s world and look ahead another 70 years.
Hosted by Rob Brooks.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pollution, warm water and fishing all threaten our oceans, but when we give nature a helping hand, its ability to help itself can be remarkable.
Adriana Vergés is a marine ecologist and conservationist in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney. Adriana’s research focuses on the ecological impacts of climate change and the conservation of the world’s algal forests and seagrass meadows and much of her research takes place underwater. Adriana is passionate about communicating science to the wider public, especially through films, art and new media.
This talk and interview are part of Unsomnia: a series of short talks for restless minds.
Tackling the issues that keep us up at night, imagining the inconceivable and envisioning the future, UNSW researchers have just 10 minutes each to explain what life we will be living in the future.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of UNSW Sydney, researchers were asked to take stock of what society used to be, fast forward to today’s world and look ahead another 70 years.
Hosted by Rob Brooks.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the future, diseases must be fought without drugs and pharmaceuticals. Can we achieve this by harnessing the cells that make up our bodies?
James Halstead is a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney. His research focuses on how single cells in the body can make decisions, and how this can go wrong in diseases.
This talk and interview are part of Unsomnia: a series of short talks for restless minds.
Tackling the issues that keep us up at night, imagining the inconceivable and envisioning the future, UNSW researchers have just 10 minutes each to explain what life we will be living in the future.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of UNSW Sydney, researchers were asked to take stock of what society used to be, fast forward to today’s world and look ahead another 70 years.
Hosted by Rob Brooks.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As many of us have become armchair experts in virus transmission and ‘flattening the curve’, it’s easy to feel like we’re drowning in information about COVID-19. Although new aspects of the virus continue to emerge daily in the terrifying living laboratory the world has become, there is still so much we don’t know. As we grapple with the enormous disruption the virus has brought, what have we found out so far? Is a vaccine really on the horizon?
Nicholas Fisk, UNSW DVCR, hosts a panel of medical experts, Rebecca Guy, Anthony Kelleher, Raina MacIntyre and William Rawlinson as they discuss what we need to discover or invent to make sure we are better equipped to face the future.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Picture a world where war is fought only by machines, and technology is the only witness of injustice and atrocity. Could drones become the last moral guardians, the eyes of truth that hold people and countries to account?
Dr Michael Richardson researches the impacts of drone technologies on war, culture and witnessing. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of the Arts and Media, currently holds an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award and is the author of Gestures of Testimony (Bloomsbury 2016).
This talk and interview are part of Unsomnia: a series of short talks for restless minds.
Tackling the issues that keep us up at night, imagining the inconceivable and envisioning the future, UNSW researchers have just 10 minutes each to explain what life we will be living in the future.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of UNSW Sydney, researchers were asked to take stock of what society used to be, fast forward to today’s world and look ahead another 70 years.
Hosted by Rob Brooks.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For Australians, the end of the Covid-19 lockdown is in sight, and a return to some semblance of normalcy is on the horizon. As our focus shifts from the virus and its immediate impact to social recovery, the economy will take centre stage. The government has a once in a lifetime opportunity to rebuild our economy, and they are not short of advice.
Which direction will they choose? Is it time for ambitious market reforms, or to maintain the social safety net that has won them so many new fans? Is there a chance of a fairer nation, or are we looking down the barrel of post-pandemic austerity?
Join a panel of our most interesting economists and commentators, Joshua Gans, Richard Holden, Judith Sloan and Jennifer Hewett (chair) to tackle the big questions we need to answer if we are to make the best economic recovery that we can.

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Haben Girma would prefer not to be called inspiring. But, as the first Deafblind woman to make Harvard history and living in defiance of great social and physical barriers, it is a term often used to describe her achievements.
Girma developed a powerful path to success despite facing many social and physical barriers. Overcoming all with an insatiable appetite for social justice as well as a wicked sense of humour, she’s become a leading advocate for people living with disabilities. Girma has been named one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 and was awarded the White House Champion of Change, presented by former President of the United States, Barack Obama.
In her memoir, Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law, Girma shares how her parents’ harrowing stories of refuge from Eritrea during its 30-year war with Ethiopia inspired her to embark on a quest for knowledge; traveling the world in search of the secret to belonging.
Girma in conversation with ABC’s Nas Campanella, retells some of these adventures and explains how they led her from feelings of isolation to conquering Harvard Law.
Haben’s story is a testament to one woman’s determination to show the world the benefits of choosing inclusion.

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The category of trans* takes the prefix for transitivity and couples it with the asterisk that indicates a wildcard in internet searches; it is a diacritical mark that poses a question to its prefix and stands in for what exceeds the politics of naming. To investigate trans* representation is also to propose that something within trans* representations exceeds the framing of transgenderism. By looking at trans* materials, we can see what is gained and what remains unpredictable about the popular embrace of transgender bodies, or some of them, and transgender representations.

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