Since before Burma’s independence from Britain in 1948 questions of ethnic self-determination, autonomy and secession have peppered discussions of the country’s prospects. With over 100 ethnic and linguistic minority groups making up around 30 per cent of the population, there is no shortage of claims for political and cultural rights founded in ethnicity. In response, Burma’s governments have struggled to manage a self-perpetuating “crisis”: they have feared that concessions to one ethnic group will lead to the fragmentation of the country as a whole. Equity and peace in ethnic minority areas has thus proved elusive. Six decades of festering civil war have followed, with countless casualties and human rights outrages. The pervasive impression of impending national doom has proven beneficial to governments seeking to justify heavy-handed counter-insurgency campaigns. In the decades since 1988, ceasefire agreements with ethnic armies have complicated the situation. While many of Burma’s civil wars are currently quiet the causes of the initial rebellions tend to remain unresolved. What makes this presentation timely is that after elections were held in November 2010 there is now a glimmer of hope for reconciliation between Burma’s ethnic minorities and the new quasi-civilian government. To help contextualise the long-running political crisis and the current proposals for its resolution, a reconceived understanding of ethnicity in Burma, and the related matters of citizenship and belonging, is required.
Dr Nicholas Farrelly is a Research Fellow at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. His research stretches across the Southeast Asian region, particularly in Burma and Thailand, and focuses on relationships between government control, spatial organisation and political conflict. Nicholas was a Rhodes Scholar, and was Postdoctoral Fellow, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security in 2010-11. He is a member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, received the Sir Peter Holmes Memorial Award in 2007, and is the co-founder of the journal New Mandala.
Thursday 26 April 2012
5.30pm
Brown Theatre
Ground Floor, Electrical & Electronic Engineering Building (193)
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Children often have no choice in decisions that lead to separation from their families in the context of migration. This paper draws together a disparate literature on children and migration to compare several forms of separation that result in children’s ‘forced transnationalism’. These include ‘left behind’ children, children sent overseas to school and migrants’ children sent to their parents’ homeland. While there are some common effects on children there is a crucial difference between separation motivated by long-term goals for the family and movement aimed at influencing an individual child’s behaviour. The latter form of movement is discussed through a case study of children sent to Tonga as a form of punishment. The paper considers forced transnationalism in relation to the twin concerns of recent work on childhood and youth: agency and rights.
Helen Lee is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the School of Social Sciences at La Trobe University.
Wednesday 18 April 2012
5.15 – 7.00pm
Faculty Function Room
Fifth Floor
John Medley Building
University of Melbourne
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In March 2008, then prime minister Kevin Rudd announced that Australia would bid to be elected to a non-permanent seat for the 2013-14 term on the most powerful global security governance body, the United Nations Security Council. Australia last served on the Council in the mid-1980s. UN member states will elect new Council members in secret ballot in October this year, and Australia is directly competing with Finland and Luxembourg for two available seats. The government argues that Australia deserves a seat because of its positive international reputation; its record of significant contributions to dealing with a range of important global issue-areas, including through the UN; its growing global influence; its ability to represent the interests of small and medium sized countries; and because of its long absence from the Council.
This expert panel will debate whether or not Australia actually deserves a Council seat, consider the likelihood of its successful election, and assess what the positive and negative implications of the bid and potential seat might be for both Australian national interests and for global security.
Expert panellists
- The Hon Robert M Hill Chancellor, University of Adelaide; Adjunct Professor of Sustainability, University of Sydney; former Senator representing South AUstralia; former Australian ambassador to the United Nations
- John Langmore Professorial Fellow and author in the School of Scoial and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, former Federal MP for Fraser, and former Director of the UN Division for Social Policy and Development in New York
- Melissa Conley Tyler National Executive Director, Australian Institute of International Affairs
- Andrew Hewett Executive Director, Oxfam Australia
- Moderated by Robyn Eckersley, Professor of Political Science, and Coordinator of the Master of International Relations Program, University of Melbourne
Thursday 19 April 2012
6.30pm to 7.45pm
Public Lecture Theatre
Old Arts Building
University of Melbourne
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Do recent discoveries of neuroscience prove that we have no free will? Some neuroscientists claim that free will is an illusion. But according to Dennett, this claim rests on a mistaken understanding of free will and moral practices.
Internationally celebrated philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett is best known for his trenchant views that consciousness and free will are just physical processes of the brain. An influential proponent of Darwinian ideas about evolution, Dennett has recently argued that religion should be understood in terms of evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is the author of numerous books, including The Mind’s Eye, Consciousness Explained, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, Kinds of Minds, Freedom Evolves, and Breaking the Spell.
Thursday 12 April 2012
6.30pm to 7.30pm
Public Lecture Theatre
Ground Floor, Old Arts Building
The University of Melbourne
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Underlying this lecture is the question posed by Brazil, which in the nineteenth century slid out of the Portuguese orbit with an Emperor of its own. Why was there no similar royal devolution in the British Empire? Instead, there have been deliberate attempts to strengthen the monarchy in Australia, not least by Labor governments. The present-day situation is considered, with its revival of royal popularity.
Basically, the republicans (promoting an Australian head of state) and the monarchists (who cherish our existing forms of government) are talking past each other. An Australian constitutional monarchy would reconcile the two positions – but it has become a lost option. Meanwhile the British royal family goes through its paces, more as visiting celebrities than anything else.
Presented by Assoc Prof Jim Davidson for the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies.
Wednesday 4 April 2012
6.30pm to 7.30pm
Theatre D
Ground Floor, Old Arts Building
The University of Melbourne
PARKVILLE VIC 3010
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Mark Stephens is one of the world’s most prominent media lawyers. He is known as former counsel to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the late author Christopher Hitchens and the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. He has defended Dow Jones (against Australian Joseph Gutnick), Wall Street Journal and the Guardian (in the ‘Alphabet Soup’ Case) and made a number of interventions in the European Court of Human Rights in free speech cases. He was also a victim of phone hacking by News of the World. In conversation with Centre for Advanced Journalism’s Margaret Simons, Mark will reflect on the limits of freedom of speech, and how journalists should operate in the murky area of unauthorised disclosure.
Mark Stephens has specialised in media law and intellectual property for the past 27 years and has a multinational practice which has included some of the most high profile cases in this field. He has been a legal commentator for Sky TV, The Times and the Guardian, appeared on BBC Radio and in 2010 named among the Evening Standard’s 1000 most influential people in London. Mark has contributed to two books, Miscarriages of Justice: a review of justice in error (1999) and International Libel and Privacy Handbook (2005).
Hosted by the Centre for Advanced Journalism and the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Friday 30 March 2012
7.00 – 8.00pm
GM15
Law Building
185 Pelham Street, Carlton
The University of Melbourne
Map.
In this lecture editor Fabrice Weissman will argue that the use of aid as a political instrument is no aberration; it’s the principal condition for deploying aid in crises situations. One of the main ethical and practical challenges faced by aid organisations is, therefore, negotiating the best possible compromise between their own interests and those of the political forces with whom they inevitably have to come to an understanding. Indeed, their ability to be effective often depends less on the genuineness of their humanitarian intentions than on their capacity to argue for an aid policy that is both coherent and compatible with the interests of the powers that be.
Which immediately raises the question of what constitutes a good compromise with those who have power? What does a humanitarian organisation see as an acceptable deal?
Thursday 29 March 2012
6.30pm – 7.30pm
Public Lecture Theatre
Old Arts Building
The University of Melbourne
Parkville
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This forum is part of the Free Public Forums Series 2012, hosted by the Centre for Public Policy, Faculty of Arts.
Race Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission,presented by Dr Helen Szoke.
Dr Helen Szoke was appointed as Australia’s full time Race Discrimination Commissioner on 5th September 2011 for a five year term. Prior to this Helen was the Commissioner for the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission between 2004-11. During her period in office Helen oversaw the introduction of the charter of human right and the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic). Helen was also co –chair of Play by the Rules, a unique partnership between the Australian Human Rights Commission, Australian Sports Commission and other agencies, that offered online advice, information and learning about combating discrimination, harassment and child abuse in the sport and recreation industry.
Dr Szoke has held positions in a range of public service and not for profit organisations. She is currently a board member of Multicultural Arts Victoria, a member of the advisory committee for the Centre for International Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, and patron of New Beginnings, a collaboration between Sudanese and non-Sudanese Australians to break cycles of conflict, and patron of the Australian Arabic Women’s Foundation.
Monday 2 April 2012
5.30pm – 7.30pm
Venue to be advised on the CPP website
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Hosted by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies and the Centre Classical Association of Victoria
The Hebrew Bible portrays the religion of ancient Israel as monotheistic, the worship of a single male deity named Yahweh. Yet the archaeological data recently accumulated shows that this may have been the ideal, but the reality was quite different. We have hundreds of nude female figurines that represent the old Canaanite Mother Goddess ‘Asherah’. We even have 8th century BCE Hebrew inscriptions naming her as the consort of Yahweh in the context of blessing. This illustrated lecture will show how monotheism developed slowly and with great difficulty in ancient Israel.
William G. Dever specialises in the history of Israel and the Near East in Biblical times and has written many books on the subject. He was Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson from 1975 to 2002 and has directed or co-directed excavations at Gezer, Khirbet el-Kôm and Jebel Qacaqir in Israel, Tell el-Hayyat in Jordan and Idalion in Cyprus. Professor Dever is in Australia as a guest of the Australian Institute of Archaeology to present the 2012 Petrie Oration.
Wednesday 18 April 2012
6.30pm
Theatre A
Elisabeth Murdoch Building
The University of Melbourne
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