Second Fleet Women: First-Rate Survivors
Lecture/seminar
In this pre-submission seminar, Nichola Garvey presents her thesis research on a group biographical study of the women transported on the Second Fleet vessel Neptune. It asks a deceptively simple question: how did these women survive? It examines survival on both the Neptune voyage,…
The Microfoundations of Global Public Opinion about Great Powers
Lecture/seminar
International opinion about the world’s great powers is increasingly framed as a central arena of soft-power competition. But we know relatively little about the global distribution and microfoundations of people’s attitudes towards great powers. In this paper, Professor Ben Goldsmith develops and…
Counterfactual Skepticism Reloaded (and Refuted?)
Seminar
According to Counterfactual Skepticism, we know next to none of the counterfactuals we assert in ordinary life. The most influential argument for this conclusion rests on premises that are now widely disputed. This talk outlines a new argument for Counterfactual Skepticism that does not depend on…
What is happening to Canberra? Crumbling Services, Mounting Debt and Declining Governance
Lecture/seminar
Canberra as a city is undergoing big changes, not all of them positive. This seminar, featuring Khalid Ahmed, former Executive Director of the ACT Treasury, analyses key challenges for Canberra services and infrastructure and explores why they have arisen. Ahmed reviews the recent history of…
The Metaphysics of Biological Essentialism
Seminar
The consensus against species having intrinsic essences has recently been challenged. The challengers have taken some account of criticisms of this essentialism, but they have not fully engaged with a range of criticisms, particularly those of Dupré, stemming from views of the metaphysics of…
Enchantment and Apocalypse: The Lives and Art of Twin Prodigies, Edward Julius and Charles Maurice Detmold
Seminar
The twin artists Charles Maurice (1883–1908) and Edward Julius (1883–1957) Detmold have been described as ‘two of the most extraordinary figures in the annals of early modern art’. Largely self-taught artistic prodigies, they first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of thirteen. But, as…