Events

Building a city – or in Christchurch’s case, rebuilding one – is an enormous and complex challenge. This fascinating and timely session looks at the science that goes into making a metropolis.

In conversation with Michelle Dickinson, Ireland’s Laurie Winkless, author of Science and the City, will examine cities in six continents to find out how they deal with the challenges of feeding, housing, powering and connecting more people than ever before. She’ll visit urban pioneers from history, along with today’s experts, and uncover the vital role science has played in shaping the cities where we live.

More information.

The Southern Hemisphere Influenza and Vaccine Effectiveness Research and Surveillance (SHIVERS) project, a 6-year (2012-2017) multiagency, multidisciplinary and multimillion-dollar (NZ$9 million) collaboration, aims to measure disease burden, epidemiology, aetiology, risk factors, immunology, effectiveness of vaccination and other prevention strategies for influenza and other respiratory infectious diseases of public health importance. Two active, prospective, population-based surveillance systems were established for monitoring influenza and other respiratory pathogens among those hospitalised patients with acute respiratory illness and those enrolled patients seeking consultations at sentinel general practices. Additionally, a sero-epidemiologic cohort study used a sample of patients from the same practices. SHIVERS provides valuable international/national platforms for supporting seasonal influenza control and pandemic preparedness, and responding to other emerging/endemic respiratory related infections. SHIVERS platform continues to attract funding from US-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) as it provides a unique opportunity to study the impact of repeat vaccination on immune responses to influenza virus infection and vaccination.

More information.

There is no denying that as New Zealand sits astride the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates our land is subject to tremendous natural forces. We may commonly experience this as a gentle but sometimes a severe shuddering of earthquakes. Yet with Aotearoa dotted with cones and calderas, Kiwis should also keep in mind that the Taupō Eruption was actually the world’s most violent volcanic eruption in the last 5000 years!

Colin Wilson has gathered many accolades for studying volcanoes, and in particular, those giant examples known as supervolcanoes. He likens his work to that of a crime scene investigator, where he travels the world piecing together the dual puzzle of why such cataclysmic explosions occur and why they are joined by much smaller eruptions. He aims to forecast volcanic phenomena with enough warning so that communities can respond. But although Colin is digging deep in the Earth’s crust to find the triggering mechanisms, volcanic systems are not letting their secrets go easily…

More information and register.

The dangers of giving ground to a new, post-truth order of public debate are recognised in President Obama’s call to arms: If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not, if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems.

On the face of it, in response to such a call, there is an urgent need to reassert the value of good argument and of critical thinking. Indeed, in the present environment in which governments present alt facts, and mainstream journalism is disparaged by some politicians, critical thinking is being seen by some as a form of activism. When I teach and write about critical thinking, I often present critical thinking as transformative and as a source of empowerment, a means of acquiring knowledge and habits of mind that enable one to speak truth to power. But the echo chamber of social media sourced news and current affairs coverage makes it harder to acquire and employ the skills and habits of mind of which responsible and critical inquiry are comprised.

In the early parts of this lecture I will address the challenges to good argumentation and reasoning posed by the post-truth order, arguing that we need an approach to critical thinking that not only teaches the skills of good reasoning and critical analysis of others’ reasoning, but that enculturates the values of which responsible inquiry is comprised, values such as open-mindedness and epistemic humility, and enables the awareness of intellectual vices – gullibility, closed- mindedness, intellectual arrogance and wishful thinking. I also reflect upon the need to respect the role of emotion in our responses to the world and of our lived experiences of it. Many of the responses that we have when thinking about and discussing socio-political issues are both cognitive and emotional. We need to harness the potential of emotion and the facts of lived experiences as a route to reason – as a means of opening up the mind to considering alternative ways of thinking and of being in the world and with each other.

More information and register.

Professor Donna Rose Addis will shortly be leaving the University of Auckland to take up a new, highly prestigious role as the Canada 150 Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Aging at the University of Toronto. Professor Addis will also join the Rotman Research Institute, internationally renowned for expertise in aging and cognition.

The School of Psychology is very proud of Donna Rose’s many achievements and her significant contributions to our understanding of brain function and memory. We will farewell her with some sadness on 4th September at a special research symposium celebrating her work, titled Le Va Fealoa’i – Relational Space.

'Le Va Fealoa’i' is the Pacific concept of relational space, “the in-betweenness, not empty space, not space that separates but space that relates” (Wendt, 2006). This symposium celebrates the relational spaces critical to Professor Addis’s research achievements here at the University of Auckland. Relational spaces have also emerged as an important theme in her research on how the brain connects memories of the past with the imagined future, and the interconnectedness of memory and the self.

In the words of Professor Addis: “The collaborative relationships with colleagues and students have supported and inspired me, and enriched my life over the past decade. In this symposium, we’ll tell you about some of the exciting findings that have emerged within the relational spaces we have created together.”

Speakers will include Professor Donna Rose Addis, Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull, Associate Professor Lynette Tippett and Dr Reece Roberts. Please join us for this fascinating research symposium, followed by drinks and nibbles.

More information and RSVP.

A collaboration between the DIET Programme (NIHI, University of Auckland), INFORMAS (University of Auckland), and the BODE3 Programme (University of Otago, Wellington). Co-sponsored by the Healthier Lives National Science Challenge.
The event is free, but registration is compulsory.

 Topics include:

- How healthy are New Zealand foods?
- Is food labelling the answer?
- Junk food marketing and children
- Price as a lever for change

More information 

Everybody uses Wikipedia, and anybody can edit it. So where does all that information come from? How reliable is it? If anyone can edit Wikipedia, why isn’t it riddled with errors and hoaxes? If nobody is in charge, why doesn’t it descend into anarchy? Learn how to assess the reliability of an article, fix mistakes, and what we in New Zealand can do to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of ourselves.

In this talk, Dr Mike Dickison, New Zealand Wikipedian-at-large and former curator of natural history at Whanganui Regional Museum, will also make links to New Zealand museum content and collection items on display at the Otago Museum, and discuss why Wikipedia is important to the future of museums.

More information.

Everyone in Otautahi/Christchurch has an earthquake story to tell, whether or not they were here for the ‘big’ quakes of September 4 2010, 22 February 22 2011, 13 June 2011 and 23 December 2011. If they have lived in this city since the first big quake, they have been shaken by aftershocks, diverted by roadworks, manoeuvred around road cones, lost work or accessed employment as a consequence of the quakes.

Professor Paul Millar, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor, College of Arts was the initiator of CEISMIC – the Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive www.ceismic.org.nz, a cultural heritage database that collects stories, images and media about the earthquakes' impacts for the purposes of commemoration, teaching and research. This is one of the largest collections of digital multi-disciplinary earthquake material in the world. It includes recordings and transcripts of 723 quake stories collected in 2012 through the UC QuakeBox project which used a storage container as a recording studio to gather these stories in different Christchurch locations.

Adjunct Associate Professor Rosemary Du Plessis, Anthropology and Sociology Department, worked on an oral history community research project with the National Council of Women that produced over a hundred stories about women’s quake experiences https://quakestudies.canterbury.ac.nz/store/collection/228. These stories, recorded mainly by volunteer interviewers, are stored in the CEISMIC digital archive and record the stories of teen parents and pensioners, Members of Parliament and beneficiaries, engineers, care-workers and heritage experts.

Paul and Rosemary will talk about the earthquake stories on the QuakeStudies website, share words and images; discuss common themes and illustrate differences among people in Christchurch as this city rocked, rumbled and rolled. What, if anything, is different about stories of disaster? Why are they so compelling? What can we learn from narratives about ‘the quakes’? What do they tell us about connections, rifts, differences, possibilities and constraints as we confront what has been defined as ‘the rebuild’ or ‘regeneration’ of this city?

More information.

There is no denying that as New Zealand sits astride the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates our land is subject to tremendous natural forces. We may commonly experience this as a gentle but sometimes a severe shuddering of earthquakes. Yet with Aotearoa dotted with cones and calderas, Kiwis should also keep in mind that the Taupō Eruption was actually the world’s most violent volcanic eruption in the last 5000 years!

Colin Wilson has gathered many accolades for studying volcanoes, and in particular, those giant examples known as supervolcanoes. He likens his work to that of a crime scene investigator, where he travels the world piecing together the dual puzzle of why such cataclysmic explosions occur and why they are joined by much smaller eruptions. He aims to forecast volcanic phenomena with enough warning so that communities can respond. But although Colin is digging deep in the Earth’s crust to find the triggering mechanisms, volcanic systems are not letting their secrets go easily…

More information and register.

Cities are now the primary human habitat but in their present form, are wasteful, damaging and running up against environmental limits. How can the bicycle help to make cities more humane, sustainable, healthy, joyful and productive places? Just as car-thinking shaped the modern metropolis, long before car use was prevalent, it is not only the use of the bicycle that shapes the way we live; it is what the bicycle stands for. The view from the saddle could save the city.

Speakers
Alistair Woodward is Head of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. He is leading a stream of research into the Future of the Bike as part of MBIE funded work on sustainable urban mobility. He would ride a bicycle even if it was not good for his health. Fortunately it probably is.

Ralph Chapman is an economist who has worked in government, the private sector and academia. He is director of the Graduate Programme in Environmental Studies, Victoria University of Wellington and is a researcher on climate change policies. Ralph is co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities where his work focuses on practical ways of doing something about climate change – that is, mitigation policies in transport, energy, housing and cities.

Hamish Mackie is Director of Mackie Research. He is a lead researcher in the Future Streets intervention and cycling project in Mangere, south Auckland.

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‘How are we doing with end of life care?’
A report on the Views of Informal Carers’ Evaluation of Services (VOICES)

Dr Jackie Robinson will present preliminary findings from VOICES. The study explored the quality of care people experienced in the last three months of life.

Looking at services delivered in the home, hospice, hospital and residential aged care, the research offers an in-depth examination of informal carers’ perceptions about what works well and what needs improving.

Jackie will draw upon survey and interview data compiled from more than 4400 deaths that occurred within the ADHB.

“The health care assistant was wonderful and wish I could remember her name. She assisted me with laying Dad out and was professional and empathic . . .”

“John had the DNR on his file; we had enduring power of attorney but no advanced care plan. I fought the hospital staff for him to come home to die . . .”

Jackie Robinson is the Service Lead Clinician, Auckland City Hospital, Palliative Care Service and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing, University of Auckland.

More information.

Dr Krista Hupman has been researching leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) in New Zealand waters for the past four years. A former marine ranger for the Department of Conservation, she was tasked with the management of a leopard seal which was frequenting public areas in the Auckland region, which launched her work around this pinniped, once thought to be a rare visitor to New Zealand’s shores.

Dr Hupman’s research has revealed that leopard seals are far more common than previously realised, and that the species is actually a regular member of the region’s marine megafauna. Currently a NIWA scientist, Dr Hupman manages a national database of leopard seal sightings and the 0800 LEOPARD sighting hotline. She also advised DOC after the 2017 birth of a leopard seal pup on Dunedin's Saint Kilda Beach.

More information.

There is no denying that as New Zealand sits astride the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates our land is subject to tremendous natural forces. We may commonly experience this as a gentle but sometimes a severe shuddering of earthquakes. Yet with Aotearoa dotted with cones and calderas, Kiwis should also keep in mind that the Taupō Eruption was actually the world’s most violent volcanic eruption in the last 5000 years!

Colin Wilson has gathered many accolades for studying volcanoes, and in particular, those giant examples known as supervolcanoes. He likens his work to that of a crime scene investigator, where he travels the world piecing together the dual puzzle of why such cataclysmic explosions occur and why they are joined by much smaller eruptions. He aims to forecast volcanic phenomena with enough warning so that communities can respond. But although Colin is digging deep in the Earth’s crust to find the triggering mechanisms, volcanic systems are not letting their secrets go easily…

More information and register.

Vast parts of Aotearoa New Zealand have lost nearly all original vegetation. Yet the combination of our unique and special landforms, indigenous vegetation, and indigenous fauna, along with the distinctive imprint of cultural occupation and cultural diversity, is what really defines our country.

There is increasing understanding of and concern for the loss of indigenous biodiversity, as shown by the Predator Free 2050 campaign, and we now also have a Billion Tree Programme, a Government committed to addressing our contribution to climate change by 2050, a desire to return biodiversity to our cities and towns, and increasing concern that many of our current intensive land use practices are unsustainable. There is also increased recognition that indigenous biodiversity does offer opportunities for more sustainable land use and financial return, along with essential ecosystem services. Although small-scale planting is very straightforward, large-scale indigenous revegetation can be challenging and costly, with substantial risks. Various methods are available and are being used across New Zealand, as will be addressed in this presentation.

This lecture is presented by Willie Shaw, a very experienced ecologist who has been working full time in various ecological roles for near 40 years. For the last 22 years he has been a Principal Ecologist and Director with Wildands, specialising in ecological restoration, assessments of ecological significance and land use effects, and ecological inventories. 

More information and booking.

This third in the series of international conferences on Wellbeing and Public Policy will (1) critically evaluate the rapidly expanding field of wellbeing research across a range of disciplines; (2) share the work of leading international organisations; and (3) distil ideas and practices which will aid governments in developing a wellbeing approach to public policy.

Place names as language of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), act as indicators of environmental change over time. In the landscape, resource areas are marked by placenames, which act as central reference points for a wider ecosystem catchment area. TEK awakened through the placename, informs and influences the way we realise our cultural, social, environmental and economic connections, aspirations, and practices. The paper discusses a Māori-led research project in Te Wai Pounamu, New Zealand that utilises TEK frameworks to inform ecosystem governance and management for climate change adaptation. The key research question: “How do Māori tribal groups, given a local context, determine what TEK is to be retained to future-manage mahika kai (resources) in climate change adaptation planning and practices”.


A major research focus is the knowledge around “tipping points” that will impact directly on the cultural, social and economic sustainability of a specific freshwater fishery (inaka / whitebait / galaxias vulgaris). The research location is the Waikouaiti River; part of the wider catchment area surrounding a coastal headland, Matainaka, on the East Otago coast, South Island. The Māori tribal group, Kāti Huirapa, have the mana whenua (traditional power and authority) over the wider Matainaka ecosystem catchment area and initiated the project.

The project is funded through the New Zealand National Science Challenge, Bio Heritage Research Programme.

More information.

OERC Seminar: Assoc Professor Bob Lloyd, Director at Raynbird Consultants.

The talk will cover the mitigation strategies given in the IPCC AR5 report. How these have changed since 2015 in terms of the climate change models available. I will also discuss the methane problem, the forest CO2 removals problem and the carbon budgets available to mitigate sufficiently, to stay below global temperature rises that could cause runaway climate change scenarios.

For NZ, a recap of the latest 7th National communication to the UN and the Governments NZ zero emissions plan for 2050. Is it sufficient and does it have the right targets that will prevent the global problem. Finally I will discuss my efforts in developing countries (The Pacific Island Nations) in developing their mitigation plans and the conflict in such countries between mitigation and development.

More information.

Achieving Equilibrium: a conversation about gender balance in STEM sectors
by The British High Commission and the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians NZ

In 2018, New Zealand and the UK are celebrating 125 and 100 years respectively of Women's suffrage. These milestones highlight how far we've come as nations.

Last week, the NZ Government launched an Action Plan to eliminate the public sector gender pay gap. This illustrates that there is more to do, including correcting the under-representation of Women in STEM sectors.

The British High Commission and the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians NZ Group invite you to join us for an interactive panel discussion on gender balance in STEM sectors, followed by drinks and nibbles.

Our panel:

- Hon Dr Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation

- Professor Juliet Gerrard, Chief Science Advisor; and

- Mr Andrew Hampton, Director-General, GCSB.


Please register here. Places at this event are limited. 

Join us for a day of short, accessible presentations from international leaders and emerging investigators in infectious disease research. We're exploring the impacts affecting New Zealand, and also how our research is addressing globally challenging health issues.

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Tahu Potiki, local reo expert and Ōtākou representative to Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, discusses the importance of language to place. How dialectal characteristics are forged in a particular environment and the perpetuation of that language is utterly integral to the evolution of culture within that place.

He will also focus on the importance of understanding the underlying nomenclature in a place such as Dunedin, where the more recent place names are so overwhelmingly symbolic of the latest cultural influences on the landscape. The underlying names, where they lie and why they were placed there tell an entirely different story.

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The Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington, Professor Grant Guilford, invites you to a public lecture by Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences, Andrew Mackintosh

Ice sheets and glaciers are currently undergoing exceptional changes, causing sea-level rise and affecting water and food security for millions of people. However, in many cases, and particularly in Antarctica, we do not know whether these changes are unprecedented, and to what degree humans are responsible. Predicting future glacier and ice-sheet behaviour also remains a major challenge.

Join Professor Andrew Mackintosh, director of Victoria University of Wellington’s Antarctic Research Centre, as he explains how recent breakthroughs are helping us answer questions about past, present and future glacier and ice-sheet response to climate change.

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Professor Alan Cooper will discuss the Pounamu terrane, a new Cretaceous exotic terrane within the Alpine schist of New Zealand.

The Haast Schist, composed predominantly of Otago, Alpine and Marlborough Schist components, is the most deeply buried and strongly metamorphosed part of a broadly eastward younging accretionary complex developed on the subduction margin of Gondwana.

More information and RSVP.

Flying well above the highest clouds aboard a modified Boeing 747, the NASA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) gets an unimpeded view of the cosmos. However, to safely reach that altitude and come back down again, mission planners require detailed forecasts of weather conditions along the route.

Join Ravi Kandula from MetService as he discusses aviation weather phenomena, and why accurate forecasts are as important to passenger aircraft as they are for stratospheric flights.

This talk starts at 7 pm and standard admission charges apply.

For further information and registration.

There is no denying that as New Zealand sits astride the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates our land is subject to tremendous natural forces. We may commonly experience this as a gentle but sometimes a severe shuddering of earthquakes. Yet with Aotearoa dotted with cones and calderas, Kiwis should also keep in mind that the Taupō Eruption was actually the world’s most violent volcanic eruption in the last 5000 years!

Colin Wilson has gathered many accolades for studying volcanoes, and in particular, those giant examples known as supervolcanoes. He likens his work to that of a crime scene investigator, where he travels the world piecing together the dual puzzle of why such cataclysmic explosions occur and why they are joined by much smaller eruptions. He aims to forecast volcanic phenomena with enough warning so that communities can respond. But although Colin is digging deep in the Earth’s crust to find the triggering mechanisms, volcanic systems are not letting their secrets go easily…

More information and register.

Claudine Stirling is an isotope geochemist. She investigates natural variations in the relative abundances of isotopes in metals and how they regulate Earth’s biogeochemical cycles.

She is best known for her research of natural uranium on and beyond Earth, which provides a wealth of information on past sea level variations and the rise and fall of oxygen in Earth’s early oceans and atmosphere for modelling future-climate scenarios, as well as reconciling the formation of the early Solar System.

Claudine received her PhD from the Australian National University, and held appointments at the University of Michigan and ETH Zürich before returning to New Zealand in 2005.

She is Director of the Centre for Trace Element Analysis, a mass spectrometry suite that provides metal concentration and isotope analyses to the University of Otago and its clients.

Claudine also serves on several international boards and editorial committees.

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Into the Underworld / Ngā Mahi Rarowhenua is a digital art exhibition by Chirag Jindal in collaboration with speleologist Peter Crossley and composer Peter Hobbs, and follows 3 years of 3D mapping ancient Lava Caves under the streets of Mount Albert, Three Kings, Mount Eden, Mangere and One Tree Hill.

The caves were formed out of local volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago, but without any legal framework during the 20th century, many of the discovered sites have been lost, destroyed, or become a hidden layer beneath the built environment. 

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Participants will get a closer look at sharks from the inside out, helping to dissect a small shark to see what happens to food as it travels through its gut and examining the way it moves, breathes, reproduces and senses its environment. You will also see and touch the 2.5 metre Sevengill Shark.

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Participants will get a closer look at sharks from the inside out, helping to dissect a small shark to see what happens to food as it travels through its gut and examining the way it moves, breathes, reproduces and senses its environment. You will also see and touch the 2.5 metre Sevengill Shark.

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Participants will get a closer look at sharks from the inside out, helping to dissect a small shark to see what happens to food as it travels through its gut and examining the way it moves, breathes, reproduces and senses its environment. You will also see and touch the 2.5 metre Sevengill Shark.

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A limited number of places will be available for the scientific dissection of the 2.5 metre Sevengill Shark which was washed up on Allans Beach on the Otago Peninsula in 2017 and retrieved by the NZ Marine Studies Centre to be used for research and education. This is a unique opportunity to find out more about these special marine predators.

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The World Health Organisation defines Equity as “the absence of avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically”. In both developed and undeveloped countries different groups may receive vastly different care, resulting in health inequity, also known as health disparity. 


In this talk, Associate Professor M. Sriram Iyengar will present some of his research concerning the use of smartphones to alleviate health inequities. This will include:

The use of smartphones by community health workers in developing countries
Self-efficacy and self-management of chronic illness in the United States
Mental health
Military healthcare
The talk will also delineate the role of Persuasive Technology (Behavior Change Support Systems) as a conceptual framework for designing effective smartphone-based systems to address health inequity.

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This seminar presents findings on the prevalence of bullying amongst senior doctors and dentists of different specialties working in New Zealand’s public health system. The research explores correlates of experiencing negative behaviours, including medical specialty, gender and ethnicity as well as perceived levels of workplace demands and support from peers and non-clinical managers. Finally, there will be a discussion on the nature and extent of barriers to formally reporting bullying behaviour as well as the consequences of bullying on the professional and personal lives of respondents.

Professor Jennifer Curtin | Inaugural lecture

It is 125 years since women won the right to vote in Aotearoa-New Zealand and in 2019 we will celebrate 100 hundred years since the passage of the Women’s Parliamentary Rights Act. We were global leaders on women’s suffrage, but we are yet to witness parity in political representation.

In this lecture I reflect on why this is the case by tracing how the gendered rules and norms that underpin the exercise of political power have worked to exclude women. Such rules are not static: they have been shaped and reshaped over time, to become more inclusive of the ‘fairer sex’. Nor have the shifts proved seismic, but as I will argue, they are the result of an agile feminist activism, working from within and outside formal politics. And feminist claims continue to disrupt and disturb the prevailing politics of advantage, although not without resistance. 

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Organ transplantation is one of the most dramatic innovations in 20th century medicine. Since the 1950s, thousands of people have lived with kidneys, corneas, hearts, lungs and other tissues harvested from others—living and dead. From the start, the scarcity of such tissues and organs posed issues for patients and surgeons, and one solution frequently offered has been compensating individuals or their families. This talk explores the history of paying for 'body merchandise' and fears sparked by 'trafficking in human bodies.

Bio:

Professor Susan E. Lederer is a leading researcher in the history of medicine and bioethics and has written extensively on the history of animal and human experimentation. She is the current chair of the Department of Medical History and Bioethics in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

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A discussion with Hager about the Nicky Hager Court Case.

Nicky Hager, an investigative journalist, will focus the lecture on his publication of Dirty Politics, and subsequent police actions to try to discover his confidential sources. In Dirty Politics he revealed a secret campaign of social media attacks and smears coordinated from the Prime Minister's office against its political opponents and concurrent campaigns – on behalf of the tobacco, alcohol and sugary foods industries – against public health professionals.

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Join the Friends as Head of New Zealand and Pacific Cultures Dr Bronwyn Labrum and Curator Katie Cooper introduce the latest publication from Te Papa Press and a new exhibition commemorating Suffrage 125.

The exhibition, Doing It for Themselves: Women Fight for Equality, features objects from the book as well as new items acquired this year. It honours women who have fought, and continue to fight, for gender equality, and showcases some of the tools they have used to make their voices heard. Curator Katie Cooper will take us through the exhibition, sharing the stories of the objects and the process of curating the exhibition.

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Professor Philip Hulme, recipient of the 2017 Leonard Cockayne Lecture Award, will explore the history of plant invasions in New Zealand and examine the underlying causes and potential future trends. Some of these invasive plants have been introduced as commercial crops such as pine and pasture grasses, while others have arrived as ornamentals from around the world. Cockayne himself introduced thousands of non-native plants to his property in Christchurch.

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Professor Susan Lederer | University of Wisconsin-Madison
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, is 200 years old. The book, published by a twenty-one-year old English woman in 1818, has had an enduring and compelling influence on Western culture. More than that, Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus, has become part of a collective vocabulary that shapes the reception and discussion of new developments in biomedicine and their bioethical implications.

This public lecture considers the ways in which the Frankenstein framework (a more simplistic rendering of Mary Shelley's tale of a monster and his maker) has infused both medical and popular discussions since the late 19th century through the present day, when the prefix "Franken" can be used to signal a range of developments from genetically modified foods (Frankenfoods) through such radical interventions as head transplants (Frankenstein surgeries).

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