Big FAT Ideas

Seven academics will confront topical issues in front of a live audience this Friday 16 September. Why will seafood stocks collapse by 2050? Whose interests are being served by current school curriculum? Do taxes on cigarettes address public health issues or are taxes the real addiction?

These questions and more will be answered at La Trobe’s inaugural Big FAT Ideas program.  Big FAT ideas presents Focused, Ambitious and Transformative talks by La Trobe academics. Each presentation will challenge the audience to think differently about an issue of local, national or global significance.

Students, staff and other guests can attend the live presentations which will be made available to the world via YouTube, iTunesU and the La Trobe website.

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Rosenberg said the program will create conversations around new ideas, ‘Big FAT Ideas aims to encourage audiences to engage with issues and concepts they hadn’t explored before, or see familiar issues from a different point of view.’

‘Big FAT Ideas is another way for La Trobe University to share innovative thinking with Australian communities and beyond,’ Professor Rosenberg said.

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES

What?  La Trobe Big FAT Ideas pilot program
When? Friday 16 September, 1.30 pm – 4.00 pm
(Interviews can be scheduled with prior notification), contact Warrick Glynn 9479 6534 or Nicole Humphreys 9479 6533
Where?  HuEd Lecture Theatre, La Trobe University, Kingsbury Drive, Bundoora
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/melbourne/location

1.35 pm – Fishy ethics: Why we need to eat less fish
Dr Susan Lawler, Environmental Management and Ecology
Human beings are harvesting more fish than ever before, with serious consequences.  Fishing fleets are using enormous amounts of fossil fuel, damaging ocean ecosystems and destroying many species that are not on the menu.

1.55 pm – Education and the war on youth
Professor Lorraine Ling, Executive Dean – Education
One of the most powerful social engineering tools available in society is school curriculum.  Curriculum is inevitably a selection of official and privileged knowledge, skills, values and attitudes, where what is included and, more importantly perhaps, what is excluded is the decision of the dominant group in society.  The curriculum can therefore be viewed as a potential weapon in the so called ‘war on youth’. How then can educators challenge this discourse and fight back on behalf of young people?

2.15 pm – Sin taxes: A low blow to the poor
Dr Wayne Geerling, Lecturer in Economics
Cigarette sin taxes are favoured by economists and politicians, generating over $6 billion in revenue per year in Australia. With smoking rates remaining higher in lower socio-economic groups, sin taxes are affecting poor people disproportionately harder – a pack-a-day smoker is spending $4,380 a year on their habit, money that is usually diverted from other household necessities.

2.35pm – Cities are still new frontiers
Trevor Budge, Associate Professor - Community Planning and Development
Half the world’s population now live in cities – a dramatic change that is still relatively recent.  At the start of the nineteenth century, London was the only city that housed one million people.  In human history, there is no precedent for vast numbers of people to be housed in urban concentrations – is it any wonder that we are finding it difficult to plan and manage our cities?

2.55 pm – People, pets and positive psychology
Dr Pauleen Bennett, Psychological Science
Pets are present in 63% of Australian homes and most Australians have lived with a pet at some point during their life. With a growing recognition that pets add something profoundly important and positive to human lives, there is the opportunity to improve the quality of life of many Australians, the aged, the unwell and socially disadvantaged.

3.15 – Are our Western accounting standards to blame for terrorism?
Ken McPhail, Chair in Accounting
This month marked the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA.  However, whilst the past ten years has witnessed lots of debate around issues of national security and foreign policy, the relationship between world trade, international accounting systems and peace has received comparatively little attention. The relationship between western accounting standards and the rise of terrorism asks whether the institution governing the development of global accounting standards needs to be transformed.

3.35pm – Mobile phones to connect refugee women
Dr Dennis Wollersheim, Lecturer, School of Public Health and Human Biosciences
Refugees have a huge cultural distance to cover on arrival in Australia – a transition that generates a demand for knowledge of information that we take for granted.  Offering peer support training and free call mobile phones to small groups of refugee women is lowering communication barriers and strengthening communities.

ENDS

Warrick Glynn, Media and Communications Unit
T: 9479 6534 E: w.glynn@latrobe.edu.au

Or

Nicole Humphreys, Media and Communications Unit
T: 9479 6533 E: n.humphreys@latrobe.edu.au