Events

A Sense of Place’ is our theme for 2019


It is a theme that draws together all four strands in the NZC – Identity, culture and organisation, Place and environment, Continuity and change, and the Economic World, and should prove to be an inspiring and thought-provoking focus for SOCCON 2019.

SOCCON 2019 is an opportunity to cement the Social Sciences as an integral component in our NZ curriculum. Come and celebrate, as a Social Science community, the breadth and diversity of our subject area. Connect with fellow Social Scientists to learn, be challenged and develop our skills as expert educators in our field. The conference will include inspiring keynote speakers and headliners as well as a wide range of workshops that will cover all areas of the Social Science curriculum.

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A Sense of Place’ is our theme for 2019


It is a theme that draws together all four strands in the NZC – Identity, culture and organisation, Place and environment, Continuity and change, and the Economic World, and should prove to be an inspiring and thought-provoking focus for SOCCON 2019.

SOCCON 2019 is an opportunity to cement the Social Sciences as an integral component in our NZ curriculum. Come and celebrate, as a Social Science community, the breadth and diversity of our subject area. Connect with fellow Social Scientists to learn, be challenged and develop our skills as expert educators in our field. The conference will include inspiring keynote speakers and headliners as well as a wide range of workshops that will cover all areas of the Social Science curriculum.

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Come and learn about cannabis use cognitions in young adults as Seth Harty presents his research on negative emotionality and substance use among adolescent and young adult populations. 
Seth Harty received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the City University of New York. He completed postdoctoral fellowships in Clinical Research Training in Child Psychiatry and Alcohol Research Training at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. His research interests are focused on negative emotionality and substance use among adolescent and young adult populations. He has been at the University of Canterbury since August 2017 and teaches classes in Developmental Psychology.

“Cannabis use cognitions among young adult cannabis users with and without a history of childhood attentional difficulties”.


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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.


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David Hollands will be presenting on trends and research around education and technology followed by an opportunity for Q&A

David Hollands is Head of Education Strategy for HP Asia Pacific and Japan. David works directly with HP global and country teams, partners, educators, communities, leaders and governments to drive the development of initiatives, policy, research and technology to help HP realise it’s goal of impacting education outcomes for 100 million learners by 2025.

Most recently David has returned from trips across Asia where he has worked with governments on the findings from the latest HP research and developing projects based on the data around learning modes and parent attitude to education, conducted across seven nations in Asia.

David is driven by the belief that education is the most important engine for positive change in the world, and outside of HP he volunteers his time to help causes in education. Working with groups like the UN Association to bring sustainability into education and being an industry advisor for the Australian National Curriculum for digital technologies are just a few of the activities and projects David is currently working on.

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Artemis was the mythical twin sister of Apollo, and goddess of the Moon. Now she personifies our path to the Moon as the name of NASA’s Program to return astronauts to the lunar surface – including the first woman. When they land, they will be where no-one has gone before: the Moon’s South Pole.
 
In this upcoming UC Connect public lecture, Artemis: The Future of Deep Space Exploration, NASA Senior Engineer and UC Erskine Fellow Tim Atkins will explain how, working with American and international partners, the Artemis Program will establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon.

The aim of the program is to uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technologies, and lay the foundation for a lunar economy. NASA’s further goals include exploration of Mars and other Deep Space destinations; Artemis is the first step in this new era of human exploration. With some of humanity’s most advanced technologies, future astronauts will stay longer on the surface of the Moon, explore more of the Moon than ever imagined, and build a sustainable presence.

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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.

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In this talk, Dr Adamson will discuss novel uses of cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) scanning.

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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.


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October's Café Scientifique comes with a bit of a twist - hop along to talk all things native frog and be among some of the first people in the country to see artwork of our extinct frog species! The speaker at this month’s Café is Luke Easton, a native frog expert and a conservation leader responsible for protecting populations of these exceptional animals.

Join Luke Easton to discuss how we have found out about these extinct frogs, why they were unique and what their discovery has meant for the species of Leiopelma species that cling to survival today.

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Join in for an interactive panel discussion with Massey University staff and students passionate about climate change.

Afterwards, grab a free hangi dinner and watch a livestream from the University of Auckland of Prime Ministers in conversation: climate change in transition.

Our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the Netherlands Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, will participate in an interactive session on climate change and how to ensure a just transition to a carbon-neutral economy. Both leaders will share their ideas, followed by a panel discussion led by University of Auckland's Jennifer Curton, Professor of Politics and International Relations. 

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Any country that borders the ocean is prone to tsunami. New Zealand is no exception and is exposed to tsunami from distant (e.g. South America), regional (e.g. Kermadec) and local (e.g. Hikurangi and Puysegur) earthquake sources

Hear from Bill Fry on how self-evacuation messaging must be carefully explained and supplemented with scientific monitoring and alerting mechanisms to protect vulnerable populations

Bill Fry is a research seismologist with GNS Science, a NZ Crown Research Institute, tasked with public good earth science, including monitoring and researching geohazards. He obtained his PhD in 2008 from ETH-Zurich in geophysics and has worked at GNS ever since, responding to earthquake and tsunami crises in NZ and liaising with government (central and regional) on numerous occasions through these responses. He has widely published on theoretical and applied topics in seismology and advises the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre on technical issues. His current passions lie in using physics to understand changes in the Earth on human time-scales -- processes that dynamically affect humanity.


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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.

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One of our challenges as a society is the tremendous amount of wasted effort that goes into engagement that’s not impactful. Guest speaker Professor Ann Christiano, Director of the Center for Public Interest Communications at the University of Florida, will present ways that society leaders, community, staff and students can achieve change across social platforms including social media.

Throughout this thought-provoking public lecture that marks the conclusion of Diversity Fest 2019, Professor Christiano will also present elements of her research interests including the mediating factors between intention and action, and moving beyond clicktivism to design strategies that achieve change across social platforms.

Attendees will be invited to stay for networking and further conversation on achieving digital social change at the end of the public lecture.


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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.

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Magma is humanity’s final frontier. We have been to the moon, to the deepest oceans, but we have never ventured into a magma chamber.

In this upcoming UC Connect public lecture – Why on earth would you drill into a magma chamber?
An award-winning educator University of Canterbury volcanologist Associate Professor Ben Kennedy will encourage the audience to explore with him the different paths magma can take to the surface and the consequences.
“Technology has advanced in recent years allowing us to do experiments with magma that give us snapshots of the processes that occur during magma’s journey to the surface,” he says.

“These processes define whether magma becomes a sustainable energy source or produces potentially catastrophic eruptions. The only way to learn more is to drill into magma chamber in Iceland and build an open window into that chamber where scientists can observe and experiment on magma in its natural habitat.”

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In a new world of easily accessible, rapid, mass communication all kinds of ideas - good and bad - can travel fast. A deluge of information leads to people seeking simplicity, yet ideas without evidence may often be dressed up in the sometimes deliberately obscure language of science. In this talk Richard Arnold will discuss some of the reasons why it's hard for evidence to be seen as convincing in today's world. He'll use examples from statistics, politics, health and sport to investigate why and when we choose to believe.


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Bridging science, art and culture by connecting the Earth & sky in photography, Babak Tafreshi shares scenes of the night sky from all the continents, an adventurous journey to the world at night.

This talk introduces The World at Night (TWAN), an international program that involves many of the world's best nightscape photographers documenting the last remaining starry skies on the planet to increase public awareness of the values of the natural night environment for all species.

TWAN is also a bridge between art, humanity, and science, with a unique message. The eternally peaceful sky looks the same above symbols of all nations and regions, attesting to the unified nature of Earth and humanity. One People, One Sky!

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A look at the science of colour and the human perception of it. Join Dr Peter Wellings on a journey of discovery in which he’ll answer some fascinating questions about the colourful world that we perceive.

Colour is all around us. It is something that we take for granted. We know much about coloured pigments and how to produce colour. We use colour in hundreds of different ways. But few of us know much about how we perceive colour or in other words how and why we see colour the way we do. What is colour? How many colours do we see? How is colour processed by our visual systems? Are there colours we don’t see? Do we all see the same colours? Do we ever see in the ultraviolet? Do animals see colours as we do? These are some of the questions Dr Wellings will address. His talk will be a colourful scientific presentation illustrated by the art of Claude Monet and Monet’s garden at Giverny.

Dr Peter Wellings is a retired Wellington ophthalmologist with a special interest in colour vision. He has been an examiner in Ophthalmic Medicine and Surgery and in Visual Physiology, both in Australia and New Zealand, for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

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Mataora: Encounters between Medicine and the Arts is a brand new event exploring a view of medicine and health that values imaginative and philosophical responses along with clinical and scientific thinking.

The inaugural Mataora will take place on Saturday 12 October 2019, and the theme for this year’s event is MIND. Contributors to the immersive day-long programme include writers, theatre practitioners, musicians, scientists, poets, doctors and others coming together to explore the complex and marvellous nature of the mind from a wide variety of perspectives. Inspired by the successful UK-based Medicine Unboxed we aim to stimulate, provoke and inspire the public, healthcare and policy audiences, and ignite fresh thinking.

The 2019 programme ranges from the latest neuroscience to theatrical, cinematic and restorative justice approaches to mental health, from bodymapping and bicultural concepts of the mind to creative approaches to doctor-patient engagement, and more. Lunch, morning and afternoon tea are provided!

Not a conference, nor a play or a concert, rather an intermingling of creative performance and conversation with cutting-edge research, Mataora: Encounters between Medicine and the Arts will be an unforgettable experience for anyone interested in health and wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Register here 

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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.More information

ridging science, art and culture by connecting the Earth & sky in photography. Babak Tafreshi spent the past two decades photographing surreal scenes of night sky in all continents, an adventurous journey to the world at night where the wonders of Earth & sky merge in photography.

This talks also presents The World at Night (TWAN) international program that involves many of the world's best nightscape photographers documenting the last remaining starry skies on the planet to increase public awareness on values of natural night environment for all species. TWAN is also a bridge between art, humanity, and science, with a unique message. The eternally peaceful sky looks the same above symbols of all nations and regions, attesting to the unified nature of Earth and mankind. One People, One Sky!

More information

Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.

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An understanding of a subject’s history and its current trajectory are critical elements in seeing how it might develop, and one’s own possible roles within it. Professor Alastair Campbell’s work has frequently included reflection on the subject he played such a significant role in founding and nurturing. From his early editorials in the Journal of Medical Ethics (JME), of which he was the founding editor (1975-1980) to his presidential address to the International Association of Bioethics (IAB) in 1998, and in many other forums since, Professor Campbell has considered the nature and purpose of bioethics, its globalisation, its relationship to reason, and its fundamental moral basis.

In this presentation, Professor Campbell will reflect on bioethics from his unique position within it, and with the benefit of over 40 years of experience of its development.

In addition to his roles with the JME and the IAB, Professor Alastair Campbell has played an important role in the establishment of centres of bioethics in three widely different places: in New Zealand he was the founding director of the University of Otago’s Bioethics Centre; and has since had founding roles with centres in Bristol, UK, and most recently at the National University of Singapore.


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The lecture series showcases different aspects of NZ Innovation for Sustainability at centres throughout NZ. Our presenters, Drs Laura Domigan and Ben Mallett, will discuss Materials science offering a greener future for our plant.

Our zero carbon future:

- Solar energy materials - Energy efficient computing

- New battery technologies - Recyclable consumer electronics

- Carbon capture - Up-cycling natural materials

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The lecture series showcases different aspects of NZ Innovation for Sustainability at centres throughout NZ. Our presenters, Drs Laura Domigan and Ben Mallett, will discuss Materials science offering a greener future for our plant.

Our zero carbon future:

- Solar energy materials - Energy efficient computing

- New battery technologies - Recyclable consumer electronics

- Carbon capture - Up-cycling natural materials

More information

Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.

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Any country that borders the ocean is prone to tsunami and New Zealand is no exception.

During great subduction earthquakes (magnitude > 8) to the north of New Zealand the densely populated coastal areas on the north coast may not experience shaking that is significant enough to trigger effective and widespread self-evacuation.

A tsunami-generating earthquake in this region could potentially leave tens of thousands of people exposed; a risk which must be addressed by supplementing natural warning with a cautious interpretation of available instrumental data.

For optimal reduction of loss of life during large regional earthquakes, self-evacuation messaging must be carefully explained and supplemented with scientific monitoring and alerting mechanisms to protect vulnerable populations.

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Associate Professor Ian Barber, of the University of Otago Archaeology Programme, will critique popular historical myths, and report on new research about the Chatham Islands/Rēkohu Moriori people.

This lecture remembers the foundational contribution of Otago University Museum ethnologist, H D Skinner to Moriori studies on the 100 year anniversary of Skinner’s first Chatham Islands/Rēkohu visit in 1919.

Complimentary tea and coffee available following the lecture.

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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.

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In this upcoming UC Connect public lecture, University of Canterbury Chemistry academic Associate Professor Sarah Masters will introduce the periodic table, explore its evolution to become what we currently know and accept, and ponder what might have happened had Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev and German chemist Julius Lothar Meyer not organised the elements into some form of repetitive table.

The lecture will also look at some of the greatest achievements that have arisen from our understanding of the periodic table, from medicine to materials to our understanding of space.
 
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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.

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Professor Tim Naish, the New Zealand Antarctica Society's National Speaker for 2019, will present two narratives for the future of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in 50 and 300 years' time.

In the first scenario, greenhouse gas emissions remain unchecked, the climate continues to warm, and the policy response is ineffective; this has large ramifications in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, with worldwide impacts.

In the second scenario, ambitious action is taken to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to establish policies that reduce pollution, slowing the rate of change in Antarctica.

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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.

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lants have brought Australasian Botanic Gardens together though BGANZ every 2 years since 2003.

They have canvassed a range of roles and perceived roles for botanic gardens.

They have been about education, conservation, their roles in communities and any number of shades of these themes.

2019 returns to basics - it is all about the plants. Science, education, recreation, conservation, community outreach - they are all dependent on plants

Botanic gardens were established to gather plants for economic purposes, for medicinal purposes then alongside private collectors for the joy and privilege that plants can bring.

As we have become increasingly urbanised 55% of the world's population now lives in cities people, have increasingly lost touch with plants as the staple of life. Where they come from, their myriad of benefits to people, their contribution to the liveability of our cities.

More information and conference website. 

Join Otago Museum's Science Engagement team at the Fox Glacier Community Centre for an evening of family fun. Learn about elements and energy in the Extreme Science Show, and about stars, constellations and our amazing universe in Otago Museum's portable planetarium.

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Today, more than 60,000 New Zealanders live with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – a number that is expected to triple by 2050. It is a condition none of us can ignore.

Profound and enlightening, The Keys in the Margarine is a unique form of stagecraft, created from interviews with people with direct experience of the disease - caregivers, family members, doctors, and support workers.

In performance, actors re-present the edited testimony from those interviews. With the audio playing in their ears, they relay the original words and how those words are spoken - every vocal inflection, intonation, and hesitation, every physical gesture and facial expression.

Their stories communicate the all-encompassing effect dementia has on the lives of people living with the disease and the lives of everyone around them.

More information

lants have brought Australasian Botanic Gardens together though BGANZ every 2 years since 2003.

They have canvassed a range of roles and perceived roles for botanic gardens.

They have been about education, conservation, their roles in communities and any number of shades of these themes.

2019 returns to basics - it is all about the plants. Science, education, recreation, conservation, community outreach - they are all dependent on plants

Botanic gardens were established to gather plants for economic purposes, for medicinal purposes then alongside private collectors for the joy and privilege that plants can bring.

As we have become increasingly urbanised 55% of the world's population now lives in cities people, have increasingly lost touch with plants as the staple of life. Where they come from, their myriad of benefits to people, their contribution to the liveability of our cities.

More information and conference website. 

Join Otago Museum's Science Engagement team at the Fox Glacier Community Centre for an evening of family fun. Learn about elements and energy in the Extreme Science Show, and about stars, constellations and our amazing universe in Otago Museum's portable planetarium.

More information 

lants have brought Australasian Botanic Gardens together though BGANZ every 2 years since 2003.

They have canvassed a range of roles and perceived roles for botanic gardens.

They have been about education, conservation, their roles in communities and any number of shades of these themes.

2019 returns to basics - it is all about the plants. Science, education, recreation, conservation, community outreach - they are all dependent on plants

Botanic gardens were established to gather plants for economic purposes, for medicinal purposes then alongside private collectors for the joy and privilege that plants can bring.

As we have become increasingly urbanised 55% of the world's population now lives in cities people, have increasingly lost touch with plants as the staple of life. Where they come from, their myriad of benefits to people, their contribution to the liveability of our cities.

More information and conference website. 

Changing the Culture of Science

Keynote speakers: Dr Nayantara Appleton (Victoria University of Wellington)
'Do not 'decolonize' if you are not decolonizing'


Dr Tara McAllister (University of Auckland) and Dr Sereana Naepi (Thompson Rivers University)
'Why isn't my professor Maori? Why isn't my professor Pasifika?'

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2030 and Beyond

Dunedin is stepping up to the climate crisis, and preparing to tackle the challenges our city will face in the coming years. In June this year, Dunedin City Council declared a climate emergency; joining communities, and governments around the world in recognising the urgency of this threat.

But what action is actually happening in Dunedin? A panel of speakers will present four talks, followed by an open Q&A session.

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Join Otago Museum's Science Engagement team at the Franz Josef Community Centre for an evening of family fun. Learn about elements and energy in the Extreme Science Show, and about stars, constellations, and our amazing universe in Otago Museum's portable planetarium.

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