Geography & Environment seminars

(formerly at SAGES)

School of Social and Environmental Enquiry

University of Melbourne

Semester 1 2007

Wednesdays 1-2pm, lecture theatre 2, basement of 221 Bouverie St, Carlton, Melbourne

Map click here

14 Mar.

Associate Prof. Ian Rutherfurd, SSEE, University of Melbourne

“Eating our Rivers? Urban food choices and irrigation”.

 
27 Mar. 

Download/podcast talks on climate change by our staff speaking at:

Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and

State Library of Victoria, on 27 March 2007. Discussions

focused on the impact of climate change and action taken in Australia

and abroad.

Dr Jon Barnett, SSEE
Dr Peter Christoff, SSEE
 
28 Mar. 
Dr Anna Hurlimann. Urban Planning, ABP, University of Melbourne

“Water for the future - is recycling the answer?”

29 Mar. (Thurs)
SPECIAL PUBLIC LECTURE organized by the Australian Climate Change 
Education Network, ASCENT. Held at the Cuming Theatre, 
Chemistry building, Parkville. 1.00 – 2.00pm.
 

Peter Christoff. Environmental Studies, SSEE, University of Melbourne

 
Peter lectures and researches on climate change and policy. 
He is the Vice-President of the Australian Conservation Foundation and 
a former director of Greenpeace Australia-Pacific. This lecture is part of his
 work for Al Gore's Climate Action education program.

“Climate Change”

30 Mar (Fri.).

Human Geography Reading Group, 3.30 pm, 1.24, 221 Bouverie St. See http://www.sages.unimelb.edu.au/news/mhgr/ for this month’s readings, introduced by Christian Kull (Monash).

4 Apr. 
Prof. Heikki Patomaki. Innovation Professor of Globalization and Global Institutions, 
RMIT University, also University of Helsinki & 
Research Director of the Network Institute for Global Democratisation  
 
Prof. Patomaki's work in politics, geopolitics, and international relations includes 
nine monographs, many edited volumes, more than 100 academic papers,
 and numerous popular articles. 
 
His recent books include Democratising Globalisation: The Leverage
of the Tobin Tax (Zed Books, 2001); After International Relations: Critical 
Realism and the (Re)Construction of World Politics (Routledge, 2002); and with 
T.Teivainen,  A Possible World: Democratic Transformation of Global 
Institutions (Zed Books, 2004). This talk is based on part of his next book, 
Political Economy of Global Security. Future Crises and Changes of Global 
Governance (Routledge, late 2007).
 
"Explaining the new rise of neo-imperialism in the early 21st century - back to the future?"
 

2 May.

Assoc.Prof. Ian Thomas, Environment & Planning, RMIT. [not the other Ian Thomas in SAGES!]

Ian Thomas is the Program Leader for Environment and Planning at RMIT,

and is the author of Environmental Management Processes and Practices for

Australia (Federation Press, 2005) and, Environmental Impact Assessment

in Australia: Theory and Practice (with M. Elliott, Federation Press, 2005)

and Environmental Policy: Australian practice in the context of theory

(Federation Press, 2007).

"Education for Sustainable Development in Universities"

May 9.

Dr Peter Christoff. Environmental Studies, SSEE, University of Melbourne

 
Peter lectures in Environmental Studies, and on climate change and policy. 
He is the Vice-President of the Australian Conservation Foundation and 
a former director of Greenpeace Australia-Pacific. 
Download related talk from March 2007 here. 

“Climate Change and Adaptive Governance”

May 23

Dr Rachel Hughes. Lecturer, Geography, SSEE, University of Melbourne

“Womb raider: gaming geopolitics in post-conflict Cambodia”

 
This paper examines how a particular trope — that of the quest for a powerful, talismanic object —
 works through gendered geopolitical practices of inspection and intervention centred on finding and 
destroying dangerous objects that are most often located in 'uncivilised' places. I trace this trope through 
video game, film and geopolitical representations and practices, using the highly successful Tomb Raider
 game series as a starting point. The game's heroine, archaeologist and tooled-up tomb raider Lara Croft,
 must obtain a series of artefacts from various exotic and 'ancient' locales. Lara's success in such quests 
affords special 'trouble-shooter' status to Lara's 'real-world' embodiment, actress Angelina Jolie, who 
plays Lara in the film adaptations of the game. Jolie is at once a film star, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, 
and mother to two adopted children (from Cambodia and Ethiopia) and her own biological child (recently 
the subject of the most expensive celebrity images of all time). Through Jolie, the quest for a talismanic 
object is transformed into the work of the mother/ advocate who acts on behalf of displaced and 
objectified life: refugees and orphans.
 

July 2-6

Institute of Australian Geographers 2007 annual meetings on campus,

organized by Melbourne, RMIT and Monash. c. 300 delegates.

See http://www.sages.unimelb.edu.au/IAGconference