Panel Discussion: Social Science: Why does it Matter?
Friday July 18: 7.30 – 9.30 pm at the Manning Clark Centre
The Creating Spaces Conference will conclude with a panel discussion on the value and future of the social sciences. The discussion will be open to the public and may be recorded for radio at a later date.
For more information contact creating.spaces@anu.edu.au
Chair: Jeremy Shearmur (Convenor, Philosophy, School of Humanities, ANU)
Participants include:
Carolyn Allport (President of the National Tertiary Education Union),
Eileen Pittaway (Director of the Centre for Refugee Research, UNSW),
Anthony Burke (Lecturer in International Relations, University of Adelaide) and
Andrew Norton (Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies).
Postgraduates undertaking research are currently working in an environment in which the value of knowledge is increasingly measured according to its capacity to be economically productive. University’s are under pressure to prioritise their research agendas towards links with industry and tangible outcomes.
For many social scientists their research involves a commitment to the life of the mind and intellectual pursuits which cannot be measured in concrete terms. Their research nevertheless brings critique and creativity to our understandings of ourselves and our communities. Their work might be said to be socially or politically productive, although such terms cannot be quantified in any meaningful sense.
How can and should a new generation of social science researchers respond to the current context in terms of its impact directly on higher education policy and on the broader community’s assumptions about the purpose and value of social science? What do the social sciences contribute to our society? What is the role of the social scientist and why might that role be under threat? Is it the social scientist’s responsibility to justify his or her function or is this a symptom of the type of discourse which dominates public discussions on education and research? Is there a specific task that falls to the social sciences in regard to current social and political contexts?
In short, why conduct social science research at all?
Participant Biographies:
EILEEN PITTAWAY, PhD (Policy Analysis), MAdmin, GradDipAdvEd, Grad DipSocAdmin, AssDipWelfW
Dr Eileen Pittaway is the Director of the Centre of Refugee Research University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia, and a member of the Asian Women's Human Rights Council. She has been working in the field of refugee policy for twenty-five years, focusing mainly on the needs of refugee women and their children. She represented one of the international non government organisations who successfully lobbied at the United Nations for recognition of rape in conflict situations as a war crime. In 2001 she received an award form the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission for her work with refugee women and children. Her research interests include the relationship between civil society and the United Nations. She is currently working on a major international research project examining the response of the International community to the sexual and gender based violence experienced by the majority of refugee women and many children, with a particular focus on the "Women at Risk" Program in Kenya and on the Thai Burma border. She is also conducting research into effective models of intervention with refugee families who are experiencing high levels of domestic and family violence.
Research Interests: Refugee women at all stages of the refugee journey; rape and sexual abuse in situations of conflict and refugee camps; refugee children, in particular , the effects of torture and trauma, and the impact of living with traumatised parents on refugee children; refugee policy, national and international; the relationship between the united nations and civil society; links between social policy domestic law, international law and human rights instruments; public education on refugee issues and human rights; alternative models of emotional support and capacity building for survivors of torture and trauma. See: Centre for Refugee Research http://www.crr.unsw.edu.au/
Dr Carolyn Allport has held an academic position in the university sector since 1974. In her twenty years of teaching at Macquarie University, she has taught economic history, urban politics and women’s history. One of the pioneers in cross-disciplinary programs, she was part of the team which developed the Women’s Studies program at Macquarie University. Her research interests include public housing policy.
Elected the first President of the National Tertiary Education Union in 1994, and re-elected in 1998, and again in 2002, she represents the Union’s 26,000 academic and general staff members in matters relating to tertiary education funding and policy issues. Carolyn was a member of the Higher Education Council (1995-1999), and is currently an observer to the Board of the Australian Universities Quality Agency. Carolyn plays a leading role in the Education International’s Higher Education Caucus, as well as being a member of the ACTU Executive. Carolyn is a prominent commentator and lobbyist at both national and international levels.
ANTHONY BURKE, PhD (ANU); M.A., BA Communications (Hons), (UTS);
Anthony Burke is a lecturer in politics at the University of Adelaide and the author of In Fear of Security: Australia's Invasion Anxiety (Pluto Press Australia). He is also the publisher of the borderlands ejournal, an interdisciplinary forum for new thinking in the humanities and social sciences. URL: http://www.borderlandsejournal.adelaide.edu.au/ He has published fiction in Meanjin (4/1995) and essays on security, ethics, Indonesia, Australia, refugees, sovereignty and warfare in Borderlands, Alternatives, Communal/Plural, Social Alternatives, Australian Humanities
Review, Pacifica Review and Postmodern Culture. See: http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/politics/A_Burke.html
Andrew Norton is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies, and also holds a part-time position at the University of Melbourne. From November 1997 to December 1999 he was Higher Education Adviser to Dr David Kemp, Federal Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Prior to joining Dr Kemp he was Editor of Policy, the quarterly journal of The Centre for Independent Studies and a fortnightly columnist for the Brisbane Courier-Mail. He is the author of The Unchained University (CIS 2002). He was an editor and contributor to A Defence of Economic Rationalism (Allen & Unwin 1993), Shaping the Social Virtues (CIS 1994) and Markets, Morals and Community (CIS 1996). He was a contributor to The Politics of Australian Society (Pearson 2000), Liberalism and the Australian Federation (Federation Press 2001) and Blaming Ourselves: September 11 and the Agony of the Left (Duffy and Snellgrove 2002). He is currently a monthly columnist for Education Age, and a regular contributor to newspapers and other periodicals.