Seminars & Events
2009
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7 May Education, Equity and Social Identities Research Seminar: Natasha Mauthner: Academic practices and academic lives at the beginning of the 21st century
Date: Thursday 7 May, 4.30-6.00 pm
Presenter: Natasha Mauthner, University of Aberdeen
Venue: Frank Tate Room, Level 2, Alice Hoy Building, University of Melbourne
Topic: Academic practices and academic lives at the beginning of the 21st century
My presentation takes the form of a narrative - an account of how I have come to study academic lives and practices at the beginning of the 21st century at a time when many universities are being restructured under new managerialist and neoliberal regimes. My analysis begins with my own experiences as an academic over a 20 year period that has coincided with a time during which universities in the UK (and throughout the industrialised world) have undergone dramatic political and economic reform, including profound transformations to the funding, conduct and regulation of university research. For the purposes of this presentation, I focus on one specific aspect of the changing research environment: the emergence, growth and normalisation of particular forms of team-based collaborative research. Drawing on my involvement in different types of collaborative projects I discuss the epistemological, methodological, political, professional and scientific challenges of team-based research models as currently practiced, and my attempts to theorise these using Bourdieu’s notion of ‘epistemic reflexivity’. This theoretical work has led me to a broader interest in understanding the emergence and ascendancy of particular academic practices within specific historical, political, institutional, financial and cultural contexts. This empirical question has brought me to New Zealand and Australia where I am exploring how changes in higher education are shaping academic lives and the ways in which academics practice their craft.
Natasha Mauthner is a Reader at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Her research interests focus around issues of gender, work, family, social networks and mental health; and she is author of The Darkest Days of My Life: Stories of Postpartum Depression (Harvard University Press, 2002). Her methodological and epistemological work explores the implications of a reflexive social science for research practices and the construction of knowledge. She has written about reflexive approaches to the interpretation of narratives and subjectivity; epistemological and ethical issues in archiving and re-using qualitative data; the micro-politics of team research and research management; epistemological issues in team-based collaborative research; and the Listening Guide approach to narrative analysis. Natasha is currently on a 6 month sabbatical at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand where she is conducting an empirical study of academic lives and practices. She will be visiting the University of Melbourne 4–15 May 2009. If you are interested in taking part in her study, she would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact her directly at: n.mauthner@abdn.ac.uk
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13 May Research Data Management Workshop for Humanities Graduate Students
Date: Wednesday 13 May, 1.00-2.30 p.m.
Presenter: Dr Joanne Evans, eScholarship Research Centre, Information Services, University of Melbourne
Venue: Baillieu Library Tutorial Room, Ground Floor, Baillieu Library
Starting a Thesis? Do you have a research data management plan? Are you aware of current University policy in regards to research data management? Find out how to store your valuable data. This session will bring you up to speed on the issues concerning collection, storage, access, protection and retention for research data and records.
COST: Free
ENQUIRIES: joanne.evans@unimelb.edu.au
ENROL ONLINE
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15 May Social Equity Forum to consider establishing a University Research Institute on Social Equity
Date: Friday 15 May, 9.30 a.m. - 1.00 p.m.
Presenter: Various
Venue: Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room, Level 1, Sidney Myer Asia Centre
Background
The University of Melbourne, through the office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, is establishing a number of large inter-disciplinary Research Institutes to tackle problems of major social significance. Issues, such as sustainability or equity, are wide in scope and impact, affecting many aspects of the contemporary world, and thus call for research that draws on combinations of disciplinary expertise and knowledge. In many parts of the University of Melbourne, important and potentially complementary research is already taking place in the broad area of social equity. There appears to be strong interest in this topic among academics across different faculties and graduate schools, as well as a range of research agendas and ways of approaching and defining social equity issues. This notice is to advertise an initial forum to discuss how the area of social equity might be shaped as a University Research Institute, and to invite all researchers with an interest to attend, or, if they are unable to be there, to signal their interest in this initiative.
Three Research Institutes have recently been established: Melbourne Sustainable Societies Institute (Interim Director: Professor Ruth Fincher); Melbourne Energy Institute (Interim Director: Professor Mike Sandiford); and Melbourne Institute of Materials (Inaugural Director: Professor Steven Prawer).
A forum on May 15th will canvass interest in establishing a Research Institute on Social Equity, and consider questions to do with scope, benefits, focus, structure, and research agenda. The aim of such an Institute would not be to replace existing centres and activities, but to build on them and help create new opportunities for research and collaboration. The forum will include 3-4 brief presentations and a longer plenary discussion to seek ideas and feedback from colleagues on this proposal.
If you have any questions or comments regarding this forum, please contact the convenors – either Julie McLeod (jemcleod@unimelb.edu.au) or Jeremy Moss (jmoss@unimelb.edu.au)
All university staff are warmly invited to attend.
RSVP (your interest, and whether you will be attending this forum): By May 8th to Eleanor Brignell, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, eleanorb@unimelb.edu.au
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15 May Science and Mathematics Education Seminar: Abolfazl Rafiepour Gatabi: Developing a theoretical framework for mathematical literacy to compare Grade 9 mathematics textbooks in Iran and Australia
Date: Friday 15 May, 2.15-3.30 p.m.
Presenter: Abolfazl Rafiepour Gatabi, Mathematics Education, Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
Venue: Room 706, Doug McDonell Building, level 7
Topic: Developing a theoretical framework for mathematical literacy to compare Grade 9 mathematics textbooks in Iran and Australia
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5 June Science and Mathematics Education PhD Completion Seminar: Lynda Ball:
Date: Friday 5 June, 2.15-3.30 p.m.
Presenter: Lynda Ball, Doctoral candidate, Mathematics Education, University of Melbourne
Venue: Room 706, Doug McDonell Building, level 7
Topic:
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10-12 June 2009: 2nd International Problem-based Learning Symposium, Singapore: What are we learning about learning?
Abstracts are now invited for consideration for presentation at the symposium. Presentations at the symposium will be in the form of Paper Presentations, Workshops, PBL Tutorials, Round Table Discussions and Poster Presentations.
Abstracts need to be submitted online using the conference template. All abstracts will be peer and blind reviewed. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 20 November 2008 and participants will be notified of status by 5 December 2008.
Accepted abstracts submitted for presentations/discussion at the Round Table discussions, Poster, PBL Tutorials and Workshop Sessions, will be compiled into a proceedings for distribution at the symposium itself.
Participants (of accepted abstracts) who would like to present a paper, will be invited to submit a 6 page summary paper which will be peer and blind reviewed by a panel with international representation. Accepted papers will be compiled into the proceedings which will be made available to all symposium participants at the symposium
The website for the symposium is
http://www.rp.sg/symposium/2009
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15 July Symposium: Globalisation and Social Inclusion in a time of institutional crisis: implications and opportunities for anti-oppressive education?
Date: Wednesday 15 July, 1p.m.–6.30 p.m.
Presenters: See below
Venue: Seminar rooms 2 & 3, Monash Conference Centre, Level 7, 30 Collins St. Melbourne
Topic: Symposium: Globalisation and Social Inclusion in a time of institutional crisis: implications and opportunities for anti-oppressive education?
Free admission
Presented by the Education, Globalisation and Social Inclusion Research Group, Faculty of Education, Monash University and the School of Education, RMIT University
RSVP by 31 May to Prue.Madden@Education.monash.edu.au
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24-26 September: International Conference on Development of Competencies in the World of Work and Education
The University of Ljubljana in cooperation with the leading European consortia in the field of Higher Education - CHEERS and REFLEX - and in collaboration with experts from the OECD, is organising an International Conference “Development of Competencies in the World of Work and Education” from 24-26 September 2009 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The main topics are:
· Transition From Education to Labour Market and Early Career;
· Innovative Teaching and Learning Modes and Curricula Development;
· Competence Development in Work Organisations and in Relation to HRM and Knowledge Management;
· Frameworks and classifications of knowledge and qualifications, competence recognition – including permeability between VET and HE;
· Skill measurement surveys and projects.
More information is available at www.decowe.com
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