The four presenters at Leading Thinkers upcoming public lecture, From bedrooms to battlefields, are, from left, Professor Rachael Taylor, Professor Gemma Geoghegan, Professor Richard Jackson and Professor David Tombs.
What do penguins, cell phones, ignorance and politics all have in common?
If you guessed they’re all topics that will be covered at the upcoming From Bedrooms to Battlefields event, you’d be correct.
Members of Otago’s Leading Thinkers Initiative are going out of their way to share their research with the wider Ōtepoti community by hosting an evening of short presentations.
The event is a first for the Initiative, event spokesperson and presenter Professor David Tombs says.
“We want it to be open to the wider community, and encourage people to come and engage with University research in a format that’s accessible and thought provoking.”
First up are two speakers from Health Sciences: Professor Rachael Taylor’s presentation is titled Are phones really keeping our teens up at night?, while Professor Gemma Geoghegan’s is titled From feathers to genomes: Tracking disease in hoiho.
Following on from that are two speakers from Humanities: Professor Richard Jackson will present Power and the production of ignorance, while Professor David Tombs will present Political prisoner abuse: From present to past.
Each speaker will give 12 minutes of highlights from some particularly topical work they’re doing, David says.
The Initiative celebrated its 21st birthday in 2024, after which members were keen to find ways to share their research with the wider Ōtepoti community.
“We’ve tried to think about accessibility and interest, not just showcasing the specific expertise of a Leading Thinker, but how this research connects to what’s going on in society and in our world today.”
It was decided that four short presentations from four different people would be more engaging than one long, deep exploration from one speaker, he says,
David hopes the Initiative will hold more events like this.
“We've already had interest from other Leading Thinkers that if there is a further event, they've offered to make a contribution to that.”
The event will be held at the Hutton Theatre at Tūhura Otago Museum and has been deliberately kept offline.
“We just want to focus on the people in the room. Future events might be online and would allow us to reach a wider audience.
“But this event is just to get us started.”
Established in 2003, the Leading Thinkers Initiative was Otago’s unique response to the Government’s Partnership for Excellence Framework. Tertiary institutions were offered the opportunity to seek matching funding, from a Government contribution of $25 million, for large-scale investment projects.
Unlike other universities, and not in line with what the Government had in mind when setting up the partnership, after some negotiation Otago succeeded in its choice to invest in people.
From bedrooms to battlefields will be held on Tuesday, 24 March from 5.30pm-7pm at Hutton Theatre, Tūhura Otago Museum. It is free to attend and all are welcome. See event listing here.
-Kōrero by Koren Allpress, internal communications adviser
Leading Thinkers
The Leading Thinkers Initiative is a flagship research partnership for the University of Otago.
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