8-14 September 2025

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Addressing sensitive issues in the classroom

Recorded session

Queensland University of Technology  Recorded session – available anytime  Teachers cannot ignore sensitive issues. They may be circulating in the community or be part of the curriculum. For example, issues related to consent education, the Voice referendum, wars in foreign lands, climate change, nuclear power, religious discrimination and exemptions for schools, marriage equality, migration, refugees and social media influencer content can all make their ways into the classroom.  How should teachers respond: Is it best to ignore issues raised if they are not part of the curriculum? Should teachers say where they stand on particular topics? Can shutting down some debates protect vulnerable students? Does the raising of issues provide important teachable moments about engaging in civil discourse? Are there some topics which should never be discussed in the classroom? How do we determine age-appropriateness for some topics?  These and other questions were discussed at a recent Q&A panel consisting of academics from QUT’s School of Teacher Education and Leadership and experienced educators working in and with schools.   In this recorded session our panel explores ways to respond to and engage students when sensitive issues are raised in the classroom.  

Stop a Scam, Share a Story

Recorded session

Fraud affects millions of victims worldwide. However, there are many myths and misconceptions about fraud victimisation as well as negative stereotypes about who is involved. In a bid to challenge this, there are many victims who bravely share their own personal stories of financial and emotional betrayal.  In this recorded session we discuss media representations of victims, with a focus on romance fraud. Panellists, Stephanie and Tracy, share their own experiences of deception, while Cassandra, Laura and Phoebe share insights from their research into this area. The discussion provides insights into how offenders operate and manipulate their victims and showcases the reality and extent of their deception. Importantly, the discussion focusses on how media narratives of victimisation can help or hinder support of those involved. It also covers what to look out for to prevent it from happening to ourselves and our loved ones, and what can be done to better respond to this growing type of victimisation. 

Social Science Community for the Great Barrier Reef Symposium 2024

Hybrid: Griffith University Gold Coast Campus + Online 1 Parkland Drive, Southport

Social Science Community for the Great Barrier Reef Symposium 2024 Reimagining Reef Futures: Stories of Creativity, Cooperation, and Courage REGISTRATIONS NOW OPEN! The Social Science Community for the Great Barrier Reef (SSCR) Symposium 2024 is proudly hosted by Griffith University and held at the Gold Coast Campus. This three-day event will be running from 11th to 13th September 2024. This year, the Symposium will be held over three days - you have the option to attend any or all the days. This is a free event, led by The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (The Reef Authority), supported by our sponsors, and enabled by a dedicated and diverse group of Reef social scientists. For further program information including our wonderful keynote presentations, please visit our website. Register below to attend SSCR2024. SSCR Symposium 2024 (griffith.edu.au) Looking forward to seeing you there!  

Free
Ongoing

Making a Difference: How Does Social Change Happen?

Recorded session

Recorded session - available on demand Policymakers confront growing challenges in areas as diverse—and often interrelated—as climate change, social inequality, artificial intelligence, work, migration, declining biodiversity, and new threats to public health. Responses require changes or modifications to deeply entrenched social and economic structures. Consequently, reform attempts often generate conflict and resistance from those with a real or perceived interest in those structures. How can such conflict be managed to deliver urgently needed reforms? This question is central to social scientists, whose work is vital to both the implementation of effective policy, and to understanding the societal implications of policy choices. A panel of six leading social scientists analysed foundations and strategies of policy change in their areas of expertise—including some of the biggest, most difficult and pressing global and national challenges. This panel highlighted the breadth, diversity, and interrelationships within and between, social scientific and other disciplines, and their central importance to addressing these challenges. Each panellist addressed three thematic questions: What is the central conflict or problem inherent to their research topic? How can this be managed or overcome? What skills or insights enable social science to make a difference to public policy—and debate thereof—in their research field? […]

Vegan Sociology Down Under

Flinders University, Bedford Park

This two-day event explores the innovative field of Vegan Sociology. Through round table discussions focussed on key areas of interest in the Australia/Aotearoa region, participants will debate the key issues relevant to scholars in the field and develop a research agenda for Vegan Sociology in the region.  Discussions will be led by field experts, with topics including: Human-animal-environment connections in Australia/Aotearoa Understanding and reimagining "pest" animals Managing differing (and sometimes clashing) values and uses of space between human and nonhuman animals The role of emotions in working against animal exploitation Companion animal liberation in the Australian/Aotearoa context What would a decolonised Vegan Sociology look like Down Under? Scholars whose work aligns with vegan sociology, critical animal studies or related fields are invited to join this in person discussion based event. If you are interested in participating please send a 300 word expression of interest to zoei.sutton@flinders.edu.au outlining how your work aligns with the event theme and why you would like to participate in these discussions by 1st September 2024.  For more information about the guiding principles of Vegan Sociology see https://www.vegansociology.com/principles/

Levelling the Field in Education

Virtual

This hybrid symposium considers the different education fields that make up the wider education system and considers how different students negotiate these spaces and manage transitions between them. It asks who is succeeding, who is still being left behind and what are different ways we can think about what success looks like. Across educational fields this asks what does inclusion mean? What does good practice look like, where are the key challenges and where do policy and program success or failure currently lie? It aims to: 1. Better understand educational inequalities and success metrics in education 2. Contribute to better informed educational policies

Provocations for anti-racism research and practice

Virtual

The Challenging Racism Project, Centre for Western Sydney and Whitlam Institute invite you to attend this showcase of cutting edge anti-racism research and practice. Facilitated by Rhonda Itaoui, the event comprises a panel discussion about current directions in anti-racism research and practice. Provocations will address synergies between research and practice, looking at how these can advance anti-racism in all spheres. We will conclude by launching the Challenging Racism Project’s new anti-racism educational social media package. The event will be followed by an opportunity to meet the panellists and network over a catered lunch.   Panel Discussion Australian schools are one of the most common settings in which children experience racism. Rachel Sharples and Katie Cherrington will discuss how to develop effective anti-racism interventions in schools. The online world is increasingly a space where racism persists, causing great harm to individuals, groups, and communities. Kevin Dunn and Stijn Denayer will discuss what we need to do to make these spaces safe and ethical, and develop strategies to tackle the pervasive threat of online hate. The Challenging Racism Project activates its research into anti-racism training. Zarlasht Sawari will discuss how research can be activated into educational strategies that improve anti-racism literacy; the ability to recognise everyday racism and its impacts;and effective bystander interventions. Naomi Steinborner will demonstrate the application of […]

Free

A Skilled (Open) Hand and a Cultivated (Open) Mind: Goals, Policies and Case Study of Open Scholarship at RMIT University

Virtual

RMIT University has worked to support Open Scholarship over several years. It now has a suite of resources and policies to support its goal to encourage and concretely support the development of Open Education Resources by RMIT staff. This online session outlines what Open Scholarship and Open Education Resources are, and their benefits, and introduces the ways in which RMIT now enables its educators to develop and publish open-access materials. This session explores a case study of open scholarship, an edited volume titled A Skilled Hand and a Cultivated Mind: A Culture of Learning and Teaching at RMIT University (2024; eds: Lee, Ducasse, Ni, Quek and Yoshida). The editors of this volume reflect on their experiences in developing this book for RMIT Open Press and how they collaborated with RMIT’s library to make it happen.

New Technologies in Contemporary Society: Promise, Peril, or Something in Between?

Virtual

This seminar is hosted by the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies, Discipline of Sociology & Criminology and Social Sciences Week 2024. Science and technology are embedded in almost every aspect of our daily lives. Yet too often, they are regarded as value-neutral, apolitical, and beyond democratic debate. As issues around technological sustainability, developments in generative AI, and concerns over humanity’s relationship with the environment become ubiquitous, the need to address the political and ethical dimensions of science and technology is more critical than ever before. Join us for an online lunchtime seminar with a panel of national and international early career scholars as part Social Sciences Week hosted by The University of Sydney. Our panellists will explore the often-unseen social dimensions of science and technology. From the politics of epigenetics and its connection to intergenerational trauma, to the role that generative AI might play in our visions of the future, to the ways in which technologies such as ‘waste drones’ are assisting in large-scale environmental remediation, our speakers will discuss the entanglement of contemporary life with the technological across micro and macro scales. What does it mean to live in and be governed by a technologically driven society? Whose knowledges […]

Free

HAAG’s Housing Roundtable on Older People in Victoria

Legislative Council Committee Room, Victorian Parliament Melbourne

It is our great pleasure to invite you to the Housing for the Aged Action Group’s Housing Roundtable on Older People in Victoria. For the past four decades HAAG has been advocating for older people’s right to affordable, accessible, stable and long-term, housing. The number of older people in Victoria who are experiencing housing precarity and homelessness as they reach retirement age is growing. In the midst of a housing crisis, it’s an important time to come together and discuss how we can prevent people reaching retirement age with no housing security. Speakers include: Minister Harriet Shing, Minister for Housing, Equality and Water, Katie Hall MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Housing, Fiona York, Executive Officer, Housing for the Aged Action Group, Lived Experience Advocates, and Professor Wendy Stone, Swinburne University of Technology. Light refreshments will be provided. Please include any dietary requirements in your RSVP. We look forward to seeing you at this vital event, but places are limited, so please RSVP no later than 6th September 2024. This is a hybrid event. The zoom link will be shared closer to the date with those registering to join online. To RSVP via phone, please call HAAG office on 03 9654 7389.

Dr Chantal Carr: Can the concept of care infrastructures play a role in regional energy transitions?

Macquarie University 25 Wally's Walk, North Ryde

Energy transitions are social transitions, shifting existing patterns of everyday life and challenging shared societal values. This is especially evident in Australia’s carbon-intensive regions, where community capacities to cohere and care for each other are being re-shaped. In this paper I draw on the concept of care infrastructures to analyse some of the contemporary social dimensions of regional energy transitions. Care infrastructures are ‘forms that pattern the organisation of care within society’ (Power and Mee 2020: 489). The case study focuses on the Illawarra, a region on the cusp of a new wave of change prompted by imperatives to decarbonise heavy industry, the globalisation of coal capital, and the emergence of new renewables infrastructure, including offshore wind. I identify the care infrastructures that have long underpinned industrial change in the region, noting that capacities to care have always existed at the household and community scale. I examine the challenges energy transitions present for existing care infrastructures and identify where gaps are emerging around support for affected workers and the broader community, before concluding with some implications for transition planning and policy.​ Chantel Carr is an ARC DECRA Fellow in the Discipline of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Wollongong. […]

Free

Amani Haydar: Amani is a multi-award winning author, visual artist and advocate for women’s health and safety

Macquarie University 25 Wally's Walk, North Ryde

Peak bodies working to end violence against women in Australia recognise that violence is preventable but condoned and trivialised societally, emboldening perpetrators, and compromising systems of accountability. Amani lost her mother to domestic violence in 2015 and her grandmother was killed in Israeli violence in 2006. Drawing on lived expertise and contemporary conversations around coercive control and primary prevention, Amani will speak about the parallels between interpersonal abuse and state-sanctioned violence. She will examine the way tactics of victim-blaming, gaslighting and DARVO occur at the macro and micro levels and the ways in which survivors engage in creative resistance against these strategies. What are the impacts of these strategies on women and other vulnerable groups? How can feminists engage in more deliberate and meaningful critiques of state-sanctioned abuse in a time of genocide? If both pro-Palestine activists and activists against domestic violence believe that violence can be prevented, what knowledge can be shared across movements to give us a clearer understanding of how power and control is exercised over vulnerable individuals and populations? Amani’s ground-breaking feminist memoir The Mother Wound, published in 2021, explores the effects of domestic abuse and state-sanctioned violence. As an appointee to the DFSV Commission’s Lived Experience Advisory […]

Free

AI, Social Media and Sexism in Schools: Where to From Here?

Virtual

Start time:       5:00 pm for registrations and refreshments/networking (Live event)                            6:00 pm Discussion Panel and audience questions  End time:        8:00 pm 1.5 hours for discussion, with up to 30 minutes for audience questions   We are witnessing a surge of incidents in Australian schools where AI and social media are being used by young people to judge, and sometimes abuse, fellow students and/or teachers. This is alongside media reports of increasing misogyny amongst teenage boys.   The resulting debates within media, government and schools have seen calls to introduce curriculum on respectful relationships to counter ‘toxic masculinity’ and calls to ban social media for young people under the age of 16.   With academic staff working across the fields of Justice, Education and Communication, QUT’s Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice (CIESJ) is convening this panel to bring together diverse perspectives on these complex societal issues and discuss possibilities for more multidisciplinary and integrated solutions.  We invite you to join us for an evening panel discussion, led by CIESJ’s Executive Dean, Professor Lori Lockyer, in conversation with QUT experts on interpersonal violence prevention, social […]

Free

Distinctive Works Prize winner: A discussion between Frank Bongiorno and Vic McEwan

Virtual

2023 Winner: Vic McEwan for 'Face to Face: The New Normal' The panel selected Vic's work due to its ‘distinctiveness’, the cross over between HASS and medical science together with the significant, beautiful and tangible outcomes of the project. "Face to Face: The New Normal" evolved through four years of artistic research with patients experiencing facial nerve paralysis due to conditions like cancer, brain tumours and Bell’s Palsy. It explored the intersection of medical science and the arts, addressing human experiences of illness, trauma and identity. The project was delivered by Vic McEwan as part of his PhD. PhD supervisors were Dr Claire Hooker, Dr Susan Coulson and Dr Paul Dwyer This work is distinctive because it is the first time an artist has been accepted into the PhD program at the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, potentially setting a precedent nationwide. The artistic process was undertaken at The Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, a cancer research hospital (Sydney, NSW), specifically at the Sydney Facial Nerve Clinic. Here, for the first ever time, a contemporary artist became an integral part of the clinical team, working alongside multi-disciplinary specialists and employing artistic methods to contribute to patient care. […]

Meet the Researchers – UOW Liverpool

Hybrid

Join us at UOW Liverpool on Wednesday 11 September 2024 for insightful presentations focusing on the latest research advancements in multicultural societies in Australia. Hear from social policy lecturer Dr Delia Rambaldini-Gooding and critical social geographer Associate Professor Natascha Klocker, as they delve into the contributions and equitable participation of refugees in Australian society. Both Delia and Natascha will present a comprehensive overview of their research in multicultural societies and refugee participation in Australian society and culture and their access to equitable employment and healthcare. The discussion will explore multiculturalism from the perspective of refugee groups in Australia. Their presentations have been designed with a diverse public audience in mind, and this event is open to the general public. High school students are welcome and encouraged to attend. Each presentation will last 15-20 minutes, and be followed by an interactive Q&A session where the audience are invited to engage with the researchers. Don't miss this opportunity to hear about this research and its implications for societies and multicultural settings. Doors open at 5:00 PM. Presentations commence at 5:30 PM. Register now: https://events.humanitix.com/meet-the-researchers-liverpool-campus-uow

Free

Conversation as Experiential Learning: We Make the Road by Walking

Virtual

This event will delve into how genuine, caring, and culturally intuitive conversations can transform collective experiences into knowledge. Join educators from Charles Sturt University's School of Social Work and Arts to discuss how philosophy underpinning experiential learning not only created the groundwork for social work education, but can be revisited to transform student experiences.

Free

Careers for Social Science graduates

Macquarie University 25 Wally's Walk, North Ryde

Have you wondered about what career you might pursue with your Degree? ​ This 2-hour special event is for current students in the Bachelor of Social Science and Bachelor of Arts (major in Sociology, Gender  Studies, Social Justice, Anthropology, Human Geography, Politics/International Relations).​ Come hear a panel discussion where alumni share insights from their career journeys. You’ll learn how they use their Degree skills and knowledge in their work, advice on how they’ve found work and information on what employers currently seek.  ​ There will be an opportunity to chat with alumni and staff over food and beverages after the panel discussion!​ ​

Free
Featured Featured

Celebrating 30 Years of: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

The Capitol 113 Swanston Street, Melbourne

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Stephen Elliott’s 1994 masterpiece, ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.’ To celebrate, join us for a spectacular screening at RMIT's fabulously fitting venue, The Capitol. The event will feature an introductory panel discussion with: Tim Chappel - The film's Oscar-winning costume designer Rebel Penfold-Russell - Executive producer Cerise Howard - Melbourne Queer Film Festival Program Director and esteemed film aficionado Kristy Kokegei - History Trust of South Australia Stephen Gaunson - RMIT University Since its initial screening 30 years ago, this multi award-winning film has had a significant impact on society and become internationally renowned as a symbol of freedom and support for the LGBTQIA+ community. Written and directed by Elliott, ‘Priscilla’ follows the road-tripping adventures of two drag queens and a transgender woman, played by Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Terence Stamp, as the trio cross the Australian desert from Sydney to Alice Springs. Presented in partnership with RMIT’s Social Change Enabling Impact Platform and RMIT Culture, as part of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia’s Social Sciences Week. Language: English Country: AUS Year: 1994 Duration: 1hr 44m Format: DCP Image credit: Still, ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen […]

$10 – $15

How did humans live before modern societies?

Virtual

This session, as part of Social Sciences Week 2024, will illuminate key aspects of modern societies and compare them with pre-modern perspectives and worldviews. In this session we will discuss how modern societies were formed and their key aspects before then exploring what our ancestors can teach us about how they lived through topics such as primordial freedoms, egalitarianism, ritual, ceremony, orality and more. Professor Yin Paradies is an Aboriginal animist anarchist activist who is Chair in Race Relations at Deakin University where he conducts research on topics such as racism, anti-racism, cultural competence, Indigenous knowledges and decolonisation. Yin has authored over 250 publications (cited over 20,000 times), been awarded grants worth $49 million and is an invited reviewer for more than 125 journals. Please RSVP to adi-events@deakin.edu.au, you will then receive the Zoom password.

Free

Difficult Conversations with Jane Hutcheon

Seymour Centre Cnr City Rd and Cleveland St, Chippendale

Australia’s pre-eminent thinkers go head-to-head with celebrated journalist Jane Hutcheon to draw out the difficult conversations of our day. Join us for an evening with two parts: Part 1: Jane brings her unique approach to get to know each panellist, exploring the art of conversation and difficult topics from each of their perspectives. Part 2: You, the audience submit your difficult questions to be wrestled with by the panel, like a collective advice columnist, under the guiding hand of Jane as conversation ringmaster. BYO Difficult Conversations: Everything is on the table. Jane Hutcheon is a writer/performer and the author of Rebel Talk, the Art of Powerful Conversations. A former foreign correspondent and TV presenter, she created the ABC’s acclaimed TV interview show One Plus One where she interviewed 500 amazing people over a decade. In 2019, Jane toured twenty-one theatres across Australia and New Zealand with actor Sir David Suchet in his retrospective show and discovered that live conversations in theatres produced a magical cocktail of electricity and intimacy.  So, join Jane and the panel, live in the theatre – the church of empathy and possibility! No topic is too difficult and no question too stupid to ask.  Schedule of Panellists Wed 11 Sep Debra Keenahan, Jeremiah Edagbami […]

$29