Past events
Annual Lecture |
The Invervention': Some Reflections Two Years On |
| Conferences | Values and Public Policy - Fairness, Diversity and Social Change Conference 2008 |
| Workshops | Fracturered Worlds: Trauma and Rage in Australian Indigenous Communities - April 2009 |
| Forums | |
| Seminar Series | Social Justice Seminar Series 2009 |
Social Justice Series - MUP |
Climate Change and Social Justice |
Annual Lecture
The Intervention: Some reflections two years on.
Over 250 people attended the Social Justice Annual Lecture for 2009 on the topic of 'The Intervention': Some reflections two years on. As June 2009 marked the second anniversary of the 'National emergency response to protect Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory', announced by the former Federal Government in 2007, SJI hosted Professor Pat Anderson, co-author of the Little Children are Sacred report into the abuse of indigenous children in the Northern Territory, to reflect on her experience with the Inquiry. Professor Pat Anderson shared a moving and passionate presentation, exploring the difference between Aboriginal and non-Aborginal preceptions of the issue. A video recording of her presentation can be found by clicking here.
Conferences
Values and Public Policy - Fairness, Diversity and Social Change Conference
The Social Justice Initiative contributed to this conference run by the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Melbourne from 26-27 February 2009. The conference explored how the notion of a ‘public good’ has been challenged by the shifting and competing values of an increasingly complex local and global community. It also explored the interface of values in policy and the relationship between democracy, human rights and pluralism.
The keynote speakers included Professor Martha Nussbaum (University of Chicago),Professor Raymond Gaita (Australian Catholic University), Julian Burnside QC, Professor Hilary Charlesworth (ANU), Jon Altman (ANU), Professor Bob Goodin (ANU) and Professor Jonathan Wolff (University College London). Presentations and further details can be found here:
http://www.public-policy.unimelb.edu.au/conference09/
Workshops
Fractured Worlds: Trauma and Rage in Australian Indigenous Communities
This workshop was presented by The University of Melbourne’s Australian Indigenous Studies Program and The Social Justice Initiative, on 24 April, 2009. The seminar considered rage in relation to Aboriginal masculinity and community violence. As public attention has been drawn to these issues through events as diverse as media coverage of the Federal Government Intervention in 2007 and the publication of Germaine Greer’s Melbourne University Press essay on rage in 2008. This seminar brought together interdisciplinary perspectives on this complex and sensitive issue including behavioural psychology, social science and literary studies.
The speakers at the workshop included;
Professor Boni Robertson, a Professor of Indigenous Policy at Griffith University. She was Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Task Force on Violence in 1999, and is one of Australia’s most respected advocates for the rights of Aboriginal women and children
Aunty Delmae Barton, an Elder-in-Residence at Griffith University. She provides inspiration and leadership through culturally-based mentoring, counselling and advice to staff and students.
Professor Nick Haslam, a social psychologist in the School of Behavioural Sciences at the University of Melbourne. His research interests include the psychology of prejudice, stereotyping and dehumanisation.
Philip Morrissey, the Academic Coordinator of the Faculty of Arts Australian Indigenous Studies Program.
Johanna Simmons, project officer in Australian Indigenous Studies.
Forums
Social Inclusion Research Forum
Fifty government policy-makers, community representatives and academic researchers attended the Social Inclusion Research Forum as part of the Social Inclusion Project. Associate Professor John Howe and Associate Professor Miranda Stewart of the Melbourne Law School are members of the cross-disciplinary Social Inclusion Project team who organised this event, which also includes Melbourne University economics and philosophy experts.The forum was supported by The Social Justice Initiative, the Law School's Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law and Tax Group and sponsors Slater and Gordon and Brotherhood of St Laurence.
The Social Inclusion Agenda is at the core of the Australian Labor
Government's social policy strategy. The aim of the Forum was to enable
invited policy-makers and experts to engage with the government's Social
Inclusion Agenda and to participate in discussions that critically
examined concepts of social inclusion and exclusion and new modes of
governance to achieve social inclusion.
Two world leaders on social inclusion research and policy presented keynote addresses - Mr Eric Marlier from the CEPS/Instead Research Institute, Luxembourg, who spoke on social inclusion governance and indicators in the European Union; and Professor Hilary Silver from Brown University, USA. Other speakers from around Australia also contributed papers. For more information on guest speakers please click here.
Thanks to Emily Long, who was the Research Associate on this project and to Tessa Dermody CELRL/Tax Group Coordinator for assisting with the organisation of the event.
Dollars and Democracy Forum: A Forum on How Best to Regulate Money in Australian Politics
SJI in parnership with the Parliament of Victoria, Swinburne University and ABC Radio National hosted a forum on the electoral finances of political parties. The debate was moderated by ABC Radio National presenter, Peter Mares, and four speakers, Mr Adem Somyurek MP, Mr Michael O’Brien MP, Ms Sue Pennicuik MLC and Mr John Roskam, Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, examined different perspectives on how the current system should be changed in order to maintain the democratic integrity of Australian politics.There is a widespread dissatisfaction with how money influences Australian politics. An ‘arms race’ exists amongst political parties with increasing amounts of money being spent on election campaigns, prompting claims that elections can be bought. Politicians from all sides of politics are calling for reform of the existing system of political funding.
The forum was broad cast on the Radio National Program The National Interest on August 21st @ 6pm. To listen to the podcast, please click here.
Social Justice Seminar Series 2009
April Seminar - 'Postcolonial Justice'
As part of the Social Justice Seminar Series, on 8 April 2009, Dr Emma Kowal explored the nexus between social justice and Indigeneity through the concept of postcolonial justice. Postcolonial justice draws attention to the impact of colonialism on the notion of social justice for Indigenous Australians. Indigenous disadvantage and the legacy of colonialism are inextricable. This relationship shapes both the way Indigenous social injustice is perceived and our ability to move towards justice for Indigenous people. Postcolonial justice is presented as a special case of social justice that highlights tensions inherent to achieving equality in a diverse society.
Dr Kowal is a cultural anthropologist with a background in clinical medicine and public health research. Her current research focuses on Indigenous-state relations, white anti-racists, and racialised genetics. She is a National Health and Medical Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry.
May Seminar - 'Big Brother or a Fair Go: Can Surveillance of Social Spaces Protect Our Rights?'
On May 5, as part of the Social Justice Seminar Series, Professor Grahman Sewell presented a critique of the conceptual and practical assumptions about the purpose and consequences of surveillance that have been used to justify its massive expansion in contemporary Australian society. We are so familiar with being placed under surveillance in public places that many of us fail to give it a second thought. We are also living through a period where the influence of social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter risks creating a whole generation whose instinct is not towards privacy but disclosure. Professor Sewell challenged the polarized view that surveillance is either coercive and malign or protective and benign and offered an “ironized” account of surveillance that allows us to evaluate its ambiguous effects as they pertain to our concerns about social justice.
Professor Graham Sewell currently teaches Organisational Behaviour in the Department of Marketing and Management. His research interests are wide ranging but he is best known for his work on the disciplinary effects of workplace surveillance. His work has appeared in premier journals and he is on the editorial board of Human Relations, Organization, and Management Communication Quarterly. In 2008, he was appointed as a senior editor to Organization Studies.
June Seminar -'An Indigenist Perspective on Community Cultural Development'
The Social Justice June Seminar was held on the 2 June, presented by Jadah Pleiter who discussed the dangers of approaching communities from a deficit perspective. Jadah presented a Community Cultural Development and an Indigenist perspective on developing inclusive methods that contain an emancipatory imperative. Jadah also discussed the role of social justice in research methods and the responsibility of the researcher in forwarding social justice in a Community Cultural Development context. Drawing on her own research, Jahah applied Indigenist concerns such as Relatedness and Relational Obligation to aspects of the research endeavour, giving attention to understanding the importance of participatory methods that cater for differing epistemologies, and to the process of decolonising methodologies.
Jadah Pleiter is a Palyku woman currently undertaking her PHD in Community Cultural Development in the faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts. With a comprehensive background in theatre, she is currently researching the suitability of Theatre for Living and Forum Theatre techniques in an Australian Aboriginal context, giving close attention to the development of Indigenist methods of conducting research.
August Seminar - 'The Psychology of Dehumanization'
Professor Nick Haslam presented the Social Justice August Seminar on 4th August to an audience of over 30 people, discussing how perceiving others as less than fully human seems to be a common phenomenon in social life, especially under conditions of social conflict. The seminar presented a social psychological account of the forms that dehumanization takes – such as the likening of people to animals, objects and automatons – and the basis of these forms in processes of group perception. Professor Haslam layed out a program of research on the often unconscious ways in which humanness is denied to others and illustrate it with studies of social perception in the domains of “race”, indigeneity, social class and gender.
Nick Haslam received his PhD in social and clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He was assistant then associate professor of psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York City before moving to the University of Melbourne in 2002, where he was promoted to professor in 2008. His research interests include psychiatric classification, intergroup relations and prejudice. Nick also serves as Director of the Researchers for Asylum Seekers group at the university.
August additional Seminar
Addressing Systemic Racism in Schools. What works?: An evaluaton of the Countering Racism in Schools Tool.
SJI held a second seminar in August 2009 which invited a project team of academics and government officials from Western Australia to present the results of a Pilot project addressing systemic racism in schools. Dr Anne Aly, of Edith Cowan Univeristy (Chief Investigator), Mr Mathew Freguson, WA Department of Education and Traininng ( Project Manager) and Kate Riddel from University of Western Australia (Researcher), presented the report and the evaluation of the Tool as a useful strategy for combaing systemic racism in Schools. The seminar was attended by over 50 people from different government departments and universities across Victoria.
The Countering Racism in Schools Tool is an innovative whole school community apporach to planning, implemnting and evaluating stratgeies to combat overt and systemic racism that provides schools with a process to review and evaluate how the school approaches and responds to all forms of racism.
'Building on our strenghts: A framework to reduce race-based discrimination and support diversity in Victoria.'
The September Social Justice Seminar was presented by Dr Yin Paradies.Yin spoke about the 'Building on our strengths: A framework to reduce race-based discrimination and support diversity in Victoria' report, in which the aims of the report were developed through a partnership between the McCaughey Centre and the Onemda Koori Health Unit at the University of Melbourne and VicHealth. The framework is a response to the continued prevalence of race-based discrimination in Victoria. This report has its origins in a concern about the health impacts of discrimination and the health benefits of supporting diversity.
It is based on a wide ranging international review of literature and practice. While recognising the need for continuing social and economic reform to reduce race-based discrimination, the framework provides guidance for practitioners by identifying themes and strategies to reduce discrimination and support diversity at the individual, organisational and community levels.
October Seminar -
Conceptualising Rights and Social Justice in and through
Research with Young Children: Exploring understandings of ethnicity and
cultural diversity”.
Dr Karina Davis presented the October Social Justice Seminar, which
will drew on research work completed within the Centre for Equity and
Innovation in Early Childhood (CEIEC) that has focused on exploring young
children’s understandings and constructions of ethnicity and cultural
diversity. Within this Karina mapped out rights-based approaches
researchers within the CEIEC are developing and employing in their research
work with young children and discuss the conceptual frameworks underpinning
this work. Karina also explored how concepts drawn from critical and
poststructural theories have influenced and supported work aimed at
investigating young children’s understandings and constructions of ethnicity
and cultural diversity – both their own and others - in educative spaces.
Karina shared empirical research data from a number of different
research projects involving young children that have investigated children’s
understandings and perceptions of ethnicity and cultural diversity and raise
questions about what this means for building socially just early childhood
environments with them.
Dr Karina Davis is a Research Fellow and Lecturer within the University of
Melbourne’s Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood (CEIEC) in
the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. Her work in early childhood
examines the racialisation of children’s and adult educators identities in
education contexts and maps the possibilities and challenges involved in
building pedagogies for social justice in early childhood.
Social Justice Series - Melbourne University Publishing
Climate Change and Social Justice - Melbourne University Publishishing
Jeremy Moss brings together today's key thinkers in climate research, including Peter Singer, Ross Garnaut and David Karoly. Climate Change and Social Justice demonstrates that the problem of how to distribute the costs of climate change is fundamentally a problem of justice. If we ignore the concerns adddressed in this book, the additional burdens of climate change will fall on the poor and vulnerable. For more information please download the Media Release.
| Conferences | |
| Workshops | Research Workshop #1 - June 2008 |
| Forums | |
Seminar Series |
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Conferences
Climate Change and Social Justice Conference 2008
The Social Justice Initiative's first event for 2008 was the Climate Change and Social Justice Conference. The Conference was held on 3 April at the University of Melbourne.
The flyer, with details about the Conference can be found here. The full Conference program can be found here. Video and audio presentations from the Conference can be found here.
Workshops
The Social Justice Initiative ran a research roundtable in June 2008. More than 25 academics from across the University attended, representing a number of different Faculties and Departments. The day was spent discussing ideas associated with social justice and how these ideas might be transformed into interdisciplinary projects. As a result of the day, a number of groups have come together to pursue research ideas and focuses.
Foundations of Social Justice Workshop
In August 2008 the Social Justice Initiative convened a workshop on the foundations of social justice. Contributors to the workshop included Dr Jeremy Moss (SJI, University of Melbourne), Dr Linda Barclay (Monash University), Dr Iwao Hirose (McGill University), Professor Garrett Cullity (The University of Adelaide), Dr Adam Swift (University of Oxford) and Dr John Baker (University College, Dublin).
The second SJI Research Workshop was held on Wednesday November 12 2008 in the Moot Court Room, Old Quad. Running from 3.30-5.30 the first hour involved a discussion on Religion, Politics and Law in a Secular Society led by Associate Professor Carolyn Evans (Law) and Professor Tony Coady (Philosophy).The second hour was devoted to a discussion on Abortion and Civil Rights with reference to the recent law reform debates in Victoria. This discussion was led by Associate Professor Lynn Gillam (Centre for Health and Society) and Padma Raman, CEO, Victorian Law Reform Commission. The research workshop was well attended with over 30 people in the audience and much debate and discussion after the presentations.
Forums
The Social Justice Initiative along with the University of Melbourne Human Rights Forum and Trinity College hosted After the Apology: A Dialogue on Reconciliation on Friday 12 September 2008 at the State Library of Victoria. Indigenous speakers included Professor Larissa Behrendt, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma and Professor Ian Anderson who discussed the extent to which the Rudd Government's apology to the Stolen Generations marks the beginning of a new relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Kylie Belling, actor and Artistic Director of the Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Theatre Cooperative chaired the event.
4th Annual Nossal Global Health Forum
Held on 20 November 2008, the theme of this important health forum was health systems and the role of health financing and disability in development. Keynote speakers included Professor Peter Berman, Adjunct Professor of Population and International Health Economics, Harvard School of Population Health and Ms Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo, Senior Operations Officer, Disability World Bank.
Social Justice Seminar Series 2008
The first in a series of Social Justice Seminars was held on 7 October 2008.
'Addressing Humiliation' - Professor Ghassan Hage
Feelings of being humiliated, shamed, demeaned can easily be perceived as issues of social justice. No human, and indeed one can say no 'being', human or non-human, should be humiliated. At the same time, being humiliated is a highly subjective feeling. Sometimes it does not take much for people to feel humiliated. Some opt to define it in relation to the perpetrator rather than the one experiencing the humiliation. In the domain of racism, for example, it is difficult to define racial humiliation: should it be defined from the perspective of the 'humiliator' or the 'humiliated' or both? And how does one define 'a humiliator': is it someone who has caused humiliation? This can include people who did not intend to humiliate. Is the humiliator, therefore, only someone who intended to cause humiliation? Professor Hage believes that humiliation is not something that can be addressed from within a culture of 'rights'. It is meaningless to say that someone has the right not to be humiliated, in the way it is meaningless to legislate that everyone should be treated with respect. This question takes us to the heart of what we conceive as social injustice and the limits of how we think about addressing it.
Ghassan Hage is the inaugural Future Generation Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory at the School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry. His research interests include globalisation, migration, nationalism, racism and multiculturalism from a comparative perspective. In 2007, the Sydney Morning Herald listed Professor Hage in its top 25 public intellectuals in Australia.
| Social Justice Initiative Launch |
The Social Justice Initiative was launched on November 28 2007 by Professor Henry Reynolds. |