2024 Past Events
View our Integrating Arts and Therapy Exhibition Publication.
View our Integrating Arts and Therapy Exhibition Publication.
5th April: International Students Meet and Greet
This event is for the School of Social Sciences International students to come together to network and make new friend. Meet their teaching colleagues and some of the services the university offers to International students.
1PSQ Conference Rooms 1 and 2. Registration required.
Contact Teddy Nagaddya for further details. t.nagaddya@westernsydney.edu.au
12th April: Social Work Workshops with Charles Sturt
These workshops are a joint venture between WSU and Charles Sturt universities.
Contact Litea Sewabu for further details. l.meo-sewabu@westernsydney.edu.au
17th April: Religion & Society Online Seminar Series 2024 - Toby Miles Johnson presenting
Religion & Society Online Seminar Series 2024
Third Wednesday of the month at 12 - 1pm
Convened by Prof Cristina Rocha & Dr Kathleen Openshaw
17th April 12-1pm on Zoom
Discretionary Policing: Following religious beliefs or operational guidelines, decision-making, and citizen engagement.
Associate Professor Toby Miles-Johnson (WSU)
Abstract
In an Australian context, there is little research which examines whether officers following a religion will place religious ideologies beyond professional guidelines and whether there are differences between religious and non-religious officers regarding decision-making and use of discretion. This raises questions about how religious and non-religious officers will engage with citizens whose identities may be similar to, or different from the responding officer, and, whether the citizen’s identity challenges an officer’s religious ideologies; thereby shaping police-citizen interaction. Whether religious or non-religious police officers are more likely to police equitably is an area of research that needs systematic enquiry; especially given that officers who are religious could apply discretional policing when adhering to religious beliefs or practices during decision-making, and, conversely, officers who are non-religious, could apply discretional adherence to organizational rules, regulations, and police training. As such, this preliminary, exploratory study sought to address this gap in knowledge. Analysing data collected from a sample of officers (N = 1425) working in one Australian police organization, this study provides insight into how religious or non-religious beliefs shapes officers’ discretional decision-making, and citizen engagement.
Associate Professor Toby Miles-Johnson (WSU) specialises in research with police organisations, national security agencies, international defence agencies, and diverse groups of people, and people categorised as vulnerable or hard to reach. Toby is interested in how institutions such as police and other national/international security agencies respond to and engage with all citizens when experiencing victimisation or when professional engagement occurs. He is the current ‘Chair of the Policing Group’ within the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology.
RSVP: Please register by 12th of April for zoom link on
22nd April: SAGR Workshop "Gender and/or Queer research in progress workshop" - open to all
This workshop is hosted by SaGR (Sexualities and Genders Research) and the Queer Cultures Research Program (Institute for Culture and Society) at Western Sydney University. The organisers are: Assoc Prof Lucy Nicholas, Assoc Prof Ben Hanckel, Prof. Mary Lou Rasmussen (ANU), and Prof. Susanne Gannon
The aim of the workshop is for sexualities and genders scholars to workshop their work-in-progress ideas. The workshop will be followed by lunch and a seminar with visiting scholar Dr And Pasley
Who is this for?
The event is open to researchers from all career stages (masters students to professors! Inside and outside of universities). We are inviting you to come along and share a work-in-progress idea on any gender and/or sexuality research – very widely defined - and discuss with other gender/queer-focused scholars.
What is required?
Each attendee will be asked to share 1 powerpoint slide about their work in progress idea. This will detail an issue you are working through: it may be writing, methodological, theoretical, ethical, philosophical. We will share these and then in smaller groups (by theme) discuss and share ideas.
When and where is it on?
Date: Monday April 22nd 2024 Time: 10-12:30pm.
Location: PC-01.9.10 (Conf 1). WSU Parramatta city campus
Note: There is no cost. Lunch is provided, and the lunch will be followed by a SaGR seminar with visiting scholar Dr And Pasley
For catering purposes please RSVP in an email by 5pm on Thurs 18th April to Dr Alison Guo at A.Guo3@westernsydney.edu.au
Please share this email with any people or groups who may be interested
Lucy
Associate Professor Lucy Nicholas
Director, Sexualities and Genders Research | School of Social Sciences
7th May: Workshop "Pitching a book proposal"
22nd May: Religion & Society Online Seminar Series 2024 - Prof Mark Hutchinson presenting
Religion & Society Online Seminar Series 2024
Third Wednesday of the month at 12 - 1pm
Convened by Prof Cristina Rocha & Dr Kathleen Openshaw
22 May, 12-1pm on Zoom
Title: ‘Complexifying the view from the North: global Italians and religious flows.’
Abstract:
The standard North Atlantic view of European religion is one which starts in the Middle East, engages the Graeco-Roman world, zooms in on Catholic expansion and then forgets about that in the desire to tell the story of religious wars and rising Protestant ‘recentering’, goes to the Americas and the spreads throughout the world. There have been numerous attempts to improve upon this view – for example, in accounts of reverse missions from the Majority World--but its entrenching in the various enlightenment and nineteenth century nationalist historiographies (which emerged coterminously with the rise of professional history writing in the academies of the global north) have generally meant that this basic theme has been carried even into attempts to write global histories. Common to those who have sought to relocate the story away from the North Atlantic axis has been the discovery that they need to start elsewhere. Is there, for instance, an alternative story of the Reformation which might help in this? An alternative story for the engagement of Protestantism with liberal national states, for global circulation which is not centred on the imperialism/ colonialism/ post-colonialism straitjacket, for the rise of modern new religious forms and flows? As it happens, yes. This paper reflects on a large, multi-year project on the global history of Italian Protestantism – the first volume of which will be published by Brill in 2025, and the second in 2026. Involving over 60 scholars who mainly publish in Italian, these two volumes trace the pre-history through the lens of the debated origins of the medieval Waldenses and the engagement of medieval heresies in Protestant literature, the geographical, social and political spread (and exile of) Italian protestant reformation, the role of inquisition and censorship, the contribution of Libertinism and religious critiques to Enlightenment and dissent, transnational networks such as freemasonry and liberal republicanism, the Napoleonic excursus, the rise of the new European nation states, and the second and third globalizations of Italian migration and Protestantization, Italian Modernism, Pentecostalism and the rise of global catholic charismatic renewal. What it demonstrates is that, when one takes the standard model, turns it upside down, and reads it through the texts and experiences of another language and the largest single national people movement in modern history, the story of European religion no longer quite looks the same.
Short Bio
Prof Mark Hutchinson is an intellectual historian who has specialized for many years in the history of higher education and the historiography of migration and new religious movements. He is currently University Historian at Western Sydney University, and he sits on a variety of international boards and committees in his field. Among his publications are the Cambridge Short History of Global Evangelicalism, volume V: Global Themes, in the Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Movements, the first and (soon the second) histories of Western Sydney University, and many others. With Maria Benedetti, Paolo Zanini and Gianclaudio Civale of the Universita’ degli Studi di Milano, his two volume Global History of Italian Protestantism will emerge in 2025 and 2026.
RSVP: Please register by 17th of May for zoom link on https://events.humanitix.com/complexifying-the-view-from-the-north-global-italians-and-religious-flows-mark-hutchinson-wsu
29th May: SAGR "Quantitative methods in genders and sexualities research"
1PSQ 3pm
Details to follow
27th June: IAMCR Pre-conference Workshop - hosted by HADRI in collaboration with colleagues in ICS and the School of HCA
C A L L F O R A B S T R A C T S
I A M C R P R E - C O N F E R E N C E
C O MM U N I C A T I O N A S C O - C R E A T I O N –
C O L L A B O R A T I V E E X P R E S S I O N T H R O U G H E N G A G E D M E D I A P R A C T I C E
IAMCR Conference’s theme of ‘weaving people together’ places emphasis on the power arising from people working in unison towards a shared goal. When mediated communication is built on common traits, the differences that may exist in multicultural contexts can be superseded. It follows that communication can also be regarded as a project in the hands, and influenced by the will, of the communicators.
The work and role of communicators as engaged media practitioners or community mobilisers is morphing continually. It has close resemblance at times to the curator, the designer, the information visualiser, the social and behaviour change promoter or the data scientist. The co-creative impulse is now to ask, how can we effectively communicate our narrative? Who/what are the sources that legitimise this narrative? What media formats will best serve its meanings?What networks will sustain the audience/participants across the communicative project? And how do we ensure the project’s viability for both communicators and audiences?
The driving ideas of this Pre-Conference are rooted in these notions. When communication is no longer perceived as a mere exchange and becomes in truth an act of co-creation, possibilities for a media practice that arise from listening and collaboration emerge. Within this landscape, different forms of engagement with and between communicators give rise to processes of collaborative expression that aim not only at creating a shared understanding, but also at producing a weave of narratives or at advocating for meaningful changes. This novel communicative texture invites collaboration from and between multiple actors, including community media outlets, participatory media initiatives, non-governmental organisations, indigenous groups, climate activists, journalists, humanitarian workers, rights advocates, academics and gender campaigners.
From these ideas, we invite submissions that address topics, theories, case studies and initiatives related, but not exclusive, to participatory communication, communication for development and social change, alternative media, media development, media literacies, environmental communication and the politics of the Anthropocene. If you are interested in participating in this event, please submit a 200-300 word abstract to Valentina Baú at
v.bau@westernsydney.edu.au Abstracts must include a title, author/s name, affiliation, and contact details.
Submissions are due by 17th March 2024.
Pre-conference details:
Western Sydney University, Parramatta City Campus, Peter Shergold Building
161-169 Macquarie St, Parramatta NSW 2150 Thursday 27th June 2024
8:30 AM – 5 PM
30th June: WSU Open Day
WSU Open Day will be held at Parramatta South Campus
Great opportunity for prospective students and their families to visit our campus and received program information, come and meet and speak with our Academics and ask questions.
Sunday 30th June.
10am to 4pm