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Keynote: Genes, Technology and the Evolution of Culture
Insights from the neanderthal genome, on gene-culture co-evolution, on how technology evolves, and on what drives innovation.
The 2011 Festival of Ideas was held between June 13-18 and focused on the search for an Australian identity in thought, literature, history, art and architecture, politics, foreign policy and education. The Festival reviewed how much the distinctive landscapes of Australia have shaped national identity, both in its bio-diversity and the brilliant way it has been imagined and depicted by artists from the ancient art of aboriginal culture to the present day.
All the sessions from the Festival of Ideas were recorded. We invite you to watch these session by clicking on the "Watch Now" link under each session.
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Opening Keynote
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The Genetic Revolution
–The Genetic Revolution I: Health and Human Identity
Watch NowHow has the genetic revolution changed our ideas of the human body and human identity? How has it changed diagnosis and treatment of serious illnesses?
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Suzanne Cory (Chair)
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
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The University of Queensland
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Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI)
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J Craig Venter Institute
–The Genetic Revolution II: Food and Power
Watch NowDoes the genetic revolution open the way to feeding the world and providing it with safe, renewable sources of energy and power? Why does the public react against genetically modified food? Are genetically modified crops the only way forward for the world
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Robert Saint (Chair)
The University of Melbourne
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Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)
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The Australian Wine Research Institute
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University of Melbourne
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Institute of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland
–The Genetic Revolution III: Legal, Ethical and Moral Dimensions
Watch NowWhat issues of privacy arise from a person’s genome being full described? What moral issues are at stake in pre-natal diagnosis of potentiality for serious illness in the foetus? Why do indigenous peoples reject genetic testing?
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Bob Williamson (Chair)
The University of Melbourne and Monash University
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Macquarie University
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Melbourne Institute for Indigenous Development at The University of Melbourne
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The University of Melbourne
–Keynote: The Construction of National Identities
Watch NowThe wartime memoirs of Charles de Gaulle open with a celebrated evocation of his native land: 'a certain idea of France.' As such they express the widely held view that the nation is the most significant focus and resonant form of collective identity;
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Princeton University
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Past and Present
–Australian History and the Australian Present I: Influences of the 19th Century
Watch NowMore details about this session will be released closer to the date.
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Kate Darian-Smith (Chair)
The University of Melbourne
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University of Melbourne
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University of Melbourne
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The Australian Centre at The University of Melbourne
–Keynote: Asserting Identity, Writing Constitutions: Britain, America and Australia
Watch NowSince the drafting of the American Constitution in 1787, Written Constitutions have increasingly come to be viewed as an essential symbol of the modern state. They have also frequently been seen as emblems of identity: not just something that a countr
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Stuart Macintyre (Chair)
The University of Melbourne
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Princeton University
–Australian History and the Australian Present II: 20th Century Influences
Watch NowNational histories establish a deep and defining relationship between a people and place. In creating their own national history the settler societies confront the predicament of their novelty.
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Kate Darian-Smith (Chair)
The University of Melbourne
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La Trobe University
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Australian National University (ANU)
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The University of Melbourne
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University of Sydney
–Keynote: War, Peace and National Identity
Watch NowNational, ethnic and religious identity have been major drivers of deadly conflict both between and within states in the past, but looking to the future there are more reasons for optimism than caution.
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Australian National University
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National Identities / Global Conflicts
–The Middle East: the Cockpit of National Identities and Perpetual Conflict
Watch NowAre there any viable solutions left to reconciling conflict in the Middle East? Can the idea of two states –Israeli and Palestinian – be made to work?
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Ghassan Hage (Chair)
The University of Melbourne
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The University of California
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School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University
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Centre for Dialogue at La Trobe University
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School of Government and Society at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo
–India, Pakistan and Afghanistan
Watch NowHow can peace be assured between these conflicting national identities and states?
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Amitabh Mattoo (Chair)
Australia India Institute
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Asia Calling
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The Australian
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Institute of South Asian Studies and the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore.
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The University of Western Australia
–The performance of identity in Australian drama
Watch NowIn this session rehearsed readings of extracts of Australian plays from 1955 to the present offers an insight into how Australian identity has shifted through this period.
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University of Melbourne.
–Keynote: Australian Identity in the 21st Century
Watch NowThis lecture would look at current Australian utterances and manifestations of identity, and attempt to connect them to where we came from and where we are bound.
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Australian Identity Today
–Australian Identity Now: Myth, Tyranny or Illusion?
Watch NowCan we have a unified sense of Australian identity given the multiplicity of Australian culture and society? How does indigenous Australia shape an overall sense of Australian identity? How does the immigrant experience shape it?
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Chris Wallace Crabbe (Chair)
The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne
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Griffith Review
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Sleepers
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Monash University
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–Australian Identity: Australian Bio-diversity and the Landscape of Imagination
Watch NowHow singular and distinctive is the Australian landscape? Does the landscape/cityscape/suburban experience still shape Australian identity?
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Chris McAuliffe (Chair)
The University of Melbourne
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Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research
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The University of Melbourne
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Australian National University
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Monash University
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The University of Melbourne
–Australian Identity and Australian Humour
Watch NowHow much has Australian identity, past and present, been shaped by Australian humour?
The Faculty of Arts and the Graduate School of Humanities & Social Sciences will be hosting refreshments at Tsubu Bar on campus for attendees of this event.
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Mic Looby (Chair)
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The Australian
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–Keynote: Do Landscapes have Identities?
Watch NowTaking its cue from Constable's famous remark that the landscapist was engaged in making 'something out of nothing', the lecture examines the genre's repeated preference for the non-descript, the unenclosed, the left-over and the insignificant.
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Chris McAuliffe (Chair)
The University of Melbourne
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UC Berkeley, USA
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Australian Landscape into Art
–The Pull of the Landscape: The Artist’s Share
Watch NowDoes the Australian landscape still exerts a power over contemporary art. If it does, what are the distinctive qualities of the Australian landscape which move artists today?
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Patrick McCaughey (Chair)
The University of Melbourne
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–Contemporary Visions and Critiques of the landscape
Watch NowFollowing a turn away from the artistic representation of landscape with the advent of post-modernism and post-national discourses, artists have again sought to engage with the landscape, with particular reference to indigenous and colonial histories; to
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Max Delany (Chair)
Monash University
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Faculty of Art and Design at Monash University
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