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Event Details

The Inhuman Condition

24 August 2024
11.30am – 12.30pm AEST
Carriageworks

Megan Evans | Bronwyn Graham | Michael Richardson | Toby Walsh | Benjamin Law

Navigating the world is challenging and it’s not always easy to throw out our comfortable understanding of how things work. But with the right guides and in a few short talks, fresh perspectives can be found.  

Our current health system isn’t evidence based – for women. Menstruation cycles have kept women out of medicine for decades. Bronwyn Graham unpacks how and why sex hormones need to play a more central role in both our everyday lives and our medical system.     

Michael Richardson examines how technology, culture, and power shape knowledge in war, security and surveillance.  

Carbon markets hailed as key pillars of our climate response have turned out to be largely greenwash. Megan Evans explores how our hyper fixation on environmental markets could do more harm than good, and what alternatives are possible.  

What can we expect from a world of deepfakes where anything you see or hear might be synthetic and the output of AI? Toby Walsh unpacks untruths and the ministry of AI.  

This session is presented as part of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, and supported by UNSW Sydney.



UNSW SYDNEY X FESTIVAL OF DANGEROUS IDEAS

UNSW Sydney is the exclusive university sponsor and proud Principal Partner of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Explore more events featuring UNSW academics and researchers here



TICKETS

Pricing
Standard – $28

Plus booking fee.

Multipacks
A multipack consists of three or more tickets to different FODI talks. After you have selected three or more tickets to different paid talks*, you may also add additional individual paid and free tickets to your order. Purchasing a multipack will provide a 15% discount across your entire cart (discount applied at check out).  

*Free sessions are not included in the three different sessions needed to create a multipack. No concession pricing is available for multipacks, and booking fees apply.  

For more information, head here
 



LIVE EVENT & VENUE

This event will take place live at Carriageworks
 



ACCESS

Wheelchair Accessible
Carriageworks has a wheelchair ramp and level access at all entrances. There is level access and accessible seating available in all venues along with multiple accessible toilets. Accessible parking is available at the end of Carriageworks Way, with entry via 229 Wilson Street. The closest train station with wheelchair access across all platforms is Redfern Station which recently underwent upgrades to improve accessibility.

Access Services
For all access services, please contact the Festival of Dangerous Ideas directly at contact@festivalofdangerousideas.com



PUBLIC TRANSPORT & PARKING

Carriageworks is easily accessible via public transport. It is an eight-minute walk from Redfern Station, a 10-minute walk from Macdonaldtown Station or 15-minute walk from Newtown Station along with numerous bus routes available. For trip planning, maps and ticket info, visit transportnsw.info or call 131 500.

Limited on-site (with entry via 229 Wilson Street) and street parking is available. For additional transport information visit the Carriageworks website.
 



CONTACT 

Festival of Dangerous Ideas 
For all event enquiries, please email contact@festivalofdangerousideas.com or visit here.

UNSW Centre for Ideas
For all other enquiries, please call the Centre for Ideas on 02 9065 0485 or email centreforideas@unsw.edu.au

The Centre for Ideas is happy to receive phone calls via the National Relay Service. TTY users, phone 133 677, then ask for 02 9065 0485. Speak and Listen users, phone 1300 555 727 then ask for 02 9065 0485. Internet relay users, visit relayservice.gov.au, then ask for 02 9065 0485. 

Speakers
Megan Evans

Megan Evans

Megan Evans is a Senior Lecturer in Public Sector Management within the School of Business at UNSW Canberra. She is an interdisciplinary social scientist whose work aims to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of environmental laws, policies and tools. Her research has contributed significantly to environmental policy in Australia and internationally, including work on forest regeneration carbon offset integrity that triggered the Independent Review of Australian Carbon Credit Units, the development of the Australian government’s biodiversity offset policy under federal environmental laws, and work on the economics of land-based carbon offsets that informed the establishment of the $500 million Land Restoration Fund in Queensland. Megan has engaged extensively with the federal government’s Nature Positive law reform process, and recently completed ARC Fellowship which examined the growth of private sector investment in biodiversity and natural capital. Megan holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and ecology (UQ), a PhD in environmental policy (ANU), and is a member of the editorial board of the journal Conservation Letters. 

Bronwyn Graham Headshot

Bronwyn Graham

Bronwyn Graham is a professor, clinical psychologist and behavioural neuroscientist at UNSW Sydney. Her research examines how female-unique factors, like fluctuating sex hormones and pregnancy, impact women’s mental health. Bronwyn has held numerous fellowships, including an ARC DECRA, a UK-based MQ Fellowship, an American Australian Association Neurological Fellowship, and she has received continuous funding from the ARC since 2014. Bronwyn’s awards include a Psychological Science ‘rising star’, a NSW Young Tall Poppy, and the Biological Psychiatry Aubrey Lewis Award. Bronwyn regularly appears in the media and she disseminates her findings to health professionals through collaborations with organisations including AnxietyUK and Black Dog Institute.

Headshot of Michael Richardson

Michael Richardson

Michael Richardson is a writer, researcher, and teacher living and working on Gadigal and Bidjigal country. He is an Associate Professor in Media and Culture at UNSW Sydney, where he co-directs the Media Futures Hub and the Autonomous Media Lab, and an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence on Automated Decision-Making + Society. His research examines technology, power, witnessing, trauma, and affect in contexts of war, security, and surveillance. His latest book is Nonhuman Witnessing: War, Climate, and Data After the End of the World.  

Toby Walsh

Toby Walsh

Toby Walsh is Chief Scientist of UNSW.AI, UNSW Sydney’s AI Institute. He is a strong advocate for limits to ensure AI is used to improve our lives, having spoken at the UN and to heads of state, parliamentary bodies, company boards and many others on this topic. This advocacy has led to him being "banned indefinitely" from Russia. He is a Fellow of the Australia Academy of Science and was named on the international Who's Who in AI list of influencers. He has written four books on AI for a general audience, the most recent is Faking It! Artificial Intelligence in a Human World. 

Ben Law

Benjamin Law

Benjamin Law is an Australian writer and broadcaster, and is the author of The Family Law, Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East, the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia. Benjamin created and co-wrote three seasons of the award-winning SBS TV series The Family Law, based on his memoir, and wrote the sold-out mainstage play Torch the Place for Melbourne Theatre Company. In 2019, he was named one of the Asian-Australian Leadership Summit’s (AALS) 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians – winning the Arts, Culture & Sport category – and one of Harper Bazaar’s Visionary Men. He has a PhD in creative writing and cultural studies.

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