From ‘Moral Decay’ to ‘Cost of Living Crisis’: 125 Years of Australian Political Discourse on Fertility
Seminar
In common with other high-income countries, a key feature of Australia’s population trends since Federation has been a shift towards smaller families. The fertility rate has fallen from over 3.5 children per woman in 1901 to just under 1.5 in 2024, although this decline has not been linear. Periods…
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…
Undergraduate Political Science Curriculum Design in Five Democracies
Lecture/seminar
Most published research on political science curriculum design focuses on the United States, leaving unclear whether findings generalise internationally. This paper analyses 218 programs at 140 universities across five English-speaking democracies: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the…
Unlikely Refuge in the Tropics: The Experience of Jewish Holocaust Refugees in the Philippines
Lecture/seminar
In 1937, when Japan invaded China, the German consul in Shanghai evacuated German citizens to the Philippine capital of Manila. Curiously, among the evacuees aboard the ship sailing under the swastika flag were around 30 Jewish families. To support their arrival, the small yet influential…
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…
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…
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…