The Humanities and the Sciences: a colloquium
A one-day colloquium to interrogate the common assumption that these two broad, competitive cultures operate divisively within our universities and our society.
Four major thinkers – two scientists, two from the humanities – have been invited to address the question of the similarities and differences between the sciences and the humanities, and to tell us how the two sets of disciplines might relate better to each other, and what they could contribute to each other – and beyond that, of course, to society as a whole.
Built around these four keynote lectures, the colloquium will include an open session in which the audience is invited to interact with a panel of scholars from both the sciences and the humanities discussing ideas and methodologies practised and shared across both research cultures.
The event will end with a panel discussion examining the colloquium theme.
9.00 – 9.30am
Welcome Coffee and Registration
9:30– 9:45am Welcome
• Introduction: Director, Humanities Research Centre, Professor William Christie
9:45 – 10.30am FIRST KEYNOTE
• Professor Brian Schmidt, Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
10:30 – 10.45am
•Q & A
10:45 – 11.15am
Morning Tea
11:15am – 12pm SECOND KEYNOTE
• Professor Gary Tomlinson, John Hay Whitney Professor of Music and the Humanities; Dir Whitney Humanities Centre, Yale University
12.00 – 12.15pm
• Q & A
12.15pm – 1.00pm
Lunch
1.00 – 1.45pm THIRD KEYNOTE
Professor Richard Arculus, Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU, distinguished geologist, volcanologist and submarine geologist, and a leading scientist in the International Ocean Discovery Program.
1.45 – 2.00pm
• Q & A
2.00 – 2.45pm FOURTH KEYNOTE
Professor Paul Griffiths, Professorial Research Fellow and Academic Director for the Arts and Social Sciences at the Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney
2.45 – 3pm
• Q & A
3.00pm – 3: 30pm
Afternoon Tea
3.30pm – 5.00pm PANEL DISCUSSION
• Assoc. Professor Jodie Bradby (Research School of Physics and Engineering)
• Professor Libby Robin (The Fenner School of Environment and Society)
• Dr Glen Roe (Centre for Digital Humanities Research, Research School of Humanities and the Arts)
• Dr Brad Tucker (Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics)
• Assoc. Professor Susan West (School of Music, Research School of Humanities and the Arts)
• Professor Cathy Waldby (Research School of Social Sciences)
• Professor Anna Wierzbicka (School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics)
5:00 – 6.00pm
Closing Remarks Professor Will Christie and drinks