ICS Seminar Series - Dr Heather Ford, Prof Ned Rossiter, Prof Brian Stout, A/Prof. Phillippa Collin
Critical Research and Funding Crises: Who Decides the Future of Humanities, Arts and Social Science Scholarship?
Event Details:
Date and Time: Thursday, March 10, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Location: Building EZ, Conference Room 1, Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University
Chair: A/Prof. Phillippa Collin
Panellists: Dr Heather Ford, Prof Ned Rossiter, Prof Brian Stout
Abstract
The first seminar for 2022 opens with a panel chaired and led by A/Prof. Phillippa Collin, who is joined by Prof Ned Rossiter, Prof Brian Stout and Dr Heather Ford. Recurrent ministerial vetoes open a wider set of questions for this panel concerning the future of HASS (Humanities and Social Science) research. The imperative to secure external funding for academic research widens the network of actors involved in determining what constitutes legitimate research. What functions ought the state, the market, disciplinary expertise and an always political notion of the “public” perform in deciding what constitutes legitimate research? How can researchers navigate the conflicting expectations and tools used to measure the merit of their work? What does this mean for the future of HASS research, and the broader architectures of scholarly inquiry - institutions, associations, international networks and ‘end users’ of research? Launching this year’s focus on states of urgency, this week’s panel itself seeks to place questions of scholarly funding centerstage.
Biographies
Associate Professor Phillippa Collin is a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She co-directs the WSU Young and Resilient Research Centre and the Intergener8 Living Lab. A social scientist, Philippa researches the role of the digital in the social, cultural and political lives of young people, with a focus on the implications for health and wellbeing.
https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/people/researchers/philippa_collin
Associate Professor Heather Ford is Head of Discipline for Digital and Social Media in the School of Communications at UTS. She has a background working for global technology corporations and non-profits in the US, UK, South Africa and Kenya. A former Google Policy Fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, former Executive Director of iCommons and co-founder of Creative Commons South Africa, her research focuses on the social implications of media technologies and the ways in which they might be better designed to prevent misinformation, social exclusion, and algorithmic bias.
https://profiles.uts.edu.au/Heather.Ford
Prof Ned Rossiter is a media theorist noted for his research on network cultures, the politics of cultural labour, logistical media, and data politics. Rossiter is Professor of Communication and Director of Research at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. He is the author of Organized Networks: Media Theory, Creative Labour, New Institutions (2006), Software, Infrastructure, Labor: A Media Theory of Logistical Nightmares (2016) and (with Geert Lovink) Organization after Social Media (2018).
https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/people/school_based_researchers/ned_rossiter
Professor Brian Stout has a long history of research, teaching and practice in Australia, Europe and South Africa. His most recent book is ‘Community Justice in Australia’ and has carried out research in Australia into interventions with children and young people facilitated by Juvenile Justice, FACS and other agencies. Professor Stout has been involved in developing and delivering training and education for criminal justice professionals in the UK and South Africa and participated in a number of European criminal justice social work projects.
https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/ics/people/school_based_researchers/ned_rossiter
