Humanities for the Future

9 April 2019
Executive Dean Professor Heather Zwicker hosted a series of lightning talks by HASS researchers at the Humanities for the Future event on Thursday, 4 April. 
HASS Executive Dean Professor Heather Zwicker

Eight inspiring researchers from HASS shared their perspectives from different humanities disciplines and inter-disciplines and explored questions around - how do humanists take up digital, Indigenous, global, intersectional and publicly engaged challenges? What futures should we be imagining? What futures does our research make possible?

An important factor behind the event is that the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) is nearing the end of its first five-year mandate. This is an important opportunity to stand back and ask: What do the humanities look like now, and what will they look like 5, 10 and 20 years from today? Where is our work going? What shape should the flagship humanities institute take? For this reason, IASH Deputy Director and ARC Future Fellow Anna Johnston facilitated the event.

You can watch the video recording of each presentation below:

Knowing in the Body
Dr Eve Klein
Including welcome remarks from Professor Heather Zwicker

Digital Societies and Cultures: Interpreting Asia and its Futures
Associate Professor Adrian Athique

Surviving Terrorism: French Narratives of Survival from the Algerian War
Dr Amy Hubbell 

Kiss my Black HASS
Associate Professor Chelsea Bond

Medical Humanities and Trans/Intersex Histories
Dr Karin Sellberg

From Science Scepticism to Advocacy
Dr Tom Aechtner 

What Communities want, what Linguists want: Genuine partnerships in research
Associate Professor Felicity Meakins

The Tuning Machine: participatory digital culture and machine learning
Dr Nic Carah

Associate Professor Chelsea Bond

Attendees also shared their response to the question, 'If you could hire any Level E Humanities Professor in the world, who would it be? Which senior scholar would you most want to attract to UQ? Whose work excites you?' Some responses to these questions are below: 

  • Deb Verhoeven
  • Professor Rae Langton - Cambridge
  • Professor Pascale Fung - Director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  • Peter Fleming (From UTS), great understanding of 21st Century capitalism
  • Brian Cummings, University of York
  • Donna Haraway
  • Jan Blommaert
  • Jose Van Dijck
  • Dr Helen NGO
  • Natasha Dow-Schull
  • Rather than one superstar, I wonder if we might try to lure say three level D’s to build their research careers and leadership at UQ Humanities
  • Martha Nussbaum
  • Timothy Morton
  • John Bonham Peters
  • Linda Tuhiwai Smith
  • Stop hiring big names and create more opportunities for early and mid-career scholars. They are the future.
  • Professor Paul Gilroy
  • Alia Al-Saji (Feminist philosopher, McGill University)
  • Prof Sasha Handley, Manchester
  • Akiko Busch
  • Prof Darla Crispin

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