News Archive

NEWS FROM THE DIRECTOR

The 2008 Integrated Human Studies seminars were a great success with growing audiences, and this year’s seminars promise even more nourishing food for thought. The provisional program for our 2009 Semester 1 seminar series, “Being Human” is below. Attendance is free. Why not mark the dates in your calendars now so you won’t forget. Our Centre also hosts the Diversity at University seminars. These are informal talks about different countries and cultures presented by students at UWA and they are delightfully frank and interesting. In 2008, for example, we learnt about the differences between Australian and Japanese toilets, and discovered that Australian dogs are more well-behaved than Mauritian dogs. These fascinating talks are held in the Seminar Room (1.81) of the School of Anatomy and Human Biology on the third Friday of each month at 12 pm, and are also free. The dates and program will be available in due course on our web site. Speaking of which… The UWA web office has done a fantastic job in transferring our Integrated Human Studies web site to the new UWA style and layout, with some useful automatic functions like links to latest news and events. The home page also includes links to our Online Learning Portal, which, after a couple of false starts, we have now settled on as the location of our discussion boards and wikis, as well as our courses for enrolled students. All of these are still in development but will become, in time, important ways for us to host community conversations about topical issues. Steve Johnson and I are heading to the World Universities Forum in Mumbai on January 14. I will present a paper, “Focusing education on world futures” and Steve will present “ Integrated Human Studies and E-Learning: Creating Communities of Inquiry through Educational Technology”. These papers will showcase the development of our ideology and practice over the last year and will, I hope, garner support for the concept of using tertiary education to create citizens capable of assessing complex problems and proposing equitable, sustainable solutions. We’ll make the presentations available through our Online Learning Portal after the conference. As well as continuing work in undergraduate unit development, we are also aiming to present an Integrated Human Studies course through University Extension’s autumn school. Contact University Extension on 6488 2433 to ask to be added to their mailing list for notice of Extension courses, or visit their web site https://www.extension.uwa.edu.au/ for more information. Cleeve Calder has been awarded first-class honours for her thesis on the effect of family meals on adult health. Cleeve is continuing and expanding her study and is looking for more people to answer her questionnaire. See the article below for more information. I encourage you to participate in this interesting avenue of research. The information you submit is password protected and forwarded to Cleeve with no identifying details so your confidentiality is ensured. I look forward to seeing familiar and new faces at our seminars and events in 2009.
Professor Neville Bruce
Director, Centre for Integrated Human Studies

BEING HUMAN SEMINAR SERIES, SEMESTER 1, 2009

Integrated Human Studies seminars for Semester 1 2009 begin on March 11 and run fortnightly until May 20. The theme is “Being human”. One of the premises of IHS is that we must understand what it means to be human in order to contemplate and shape human futures; this seminar series looks at some common aspects of being human. Again we have speakers addressing the topics from a variety of perspectives to give a broad – although by no means comprehensive – understanding of the topic, and audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions after the talks.

March 11 Being healthy – food and nutrition
Human beings evolved eating a variety of fresh seasonal foods, but for many in the first world, media influence and the 24/7 supermarket promote unhealthy food choices. And in some countries, climatic, political or economic factors make food availability uncertain now and in the future. Speakers: Prof Neville Bruce, researcher Dr Emma Dove, Prof Graeme Martin

March 25 Growing up/rites of passage
The transition to adulthood can be fraught with angst, or worse, anger. John Robertson brings a comic perspective to the delights of adolescence, and we also consider some serious youth issues, and the concept of rites of passage. Speakers: Law student Zarah Burgess, comedian John Robertson, Rev Canon Richard Pengelley

April 8 Mortality
To be human is to die. Historically death has been a commonplace of family life, but in affluent first world communities we may rarely encounter it – or we may have unwanted foreknowledge of its approach. Speakers: Prof Bev McNamara, Dr Susannah Thompson, Rev Graeme Manolas

April 22 Education
What should the well-educated citizen of Australia know in order to take their place in the global community of the 21st century? We think we know! What do you think? Speakers: UWA Vice Chancellor Alan Robson, Canon Frank Sheehan, Aileen Walsh

May 6 Work
In hunter and gatherer societies, twenty hours a week were needed to gather the necessities of life, with the rest of the time free for family and cultural activities, and rest. What have we achieved for human wellbeing in work practices since the Industrial Revolution? Speakers: Prof Rob Lambert, Dr Elliot Wood

May 20 Humans and animals
Human beings have always maintained relationships with animals, from parasites to working beasts to pets. Our use of animals this century throws up particular challenges. Speakers: Dr Dominique Blache, beekeeper Peter Detchon, Arts lecturer and poet Prof Dennis Haskell

STUDY ON FAMILY MEALS
The surroundings in which we live contribute towards our state of wellness. One environment that has the potential to influence our health is the family meal, a common family event that traverses culture and time. No doubt at some point in your life you have attended family meals. Some find mealtimes stressful and a nuisance owing to heavy work schedules. It may be a destructive arena for heightened conflict in some families. In others, it may be an important time to connect with loved ones, to pass on knowledge, or to discuss and reflect on business that has passed or is yet to come. There have been a number of studies examining the significance of family meals for the wellbeing of children and teenagers, although little is known about its relevance to adult health. This is the object of the present study. This research will provide further information about environmental factors shaping the health and health-related behaviours of adults, thus aiding in the prevention of many environmental diseases affecting the human body and mind. Cleeve Calder seeks volunteers aged 18 to 50 to complete an electronic questionnaire asking about their general background, lifestyle, and childhood and current family meal environments. This should only take 20-30 minutes at most. All participants will remain completely anonymous.  No information received can be traced back to participants. For further information or to download a questionnaire, please visit: www.ihs.uwa.edu.au/research/current_projects/family_meals_and_health

HAVE YOU JUST JOINED OUR MAIL LIST?

If you have missed previous newsletters containing summaries of the seminar presentations, you can see them on the UWA News page https://www.news.uwa.edu.au/category/business-unit/integrated-human-studies

ABOUT THE CENTRE FOR INTEGRATED HUMAN STUDIES

You can find out more about the Centre and about IHS at our web site www.ihs.uwa.edu.au . If you are interested in enrolling in postgraduate courses in IHS, please contact the Director, Prof Neville Bruce on 6488 3292 or email [email protected] .

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Please feel free to give us your comments, thoughts or suggestions for future seminar topics by emailing Karen on [email protected] . Also, if you know people who might be interested in IHS or our seminar series, forward them this e-newsletter.

And finally, if you do not wish to receive notices about IHS events in the future, please reply to this email with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject field.

Karen Connolly
Integrated Human Studies
School of Anatomy and Human Biology
The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009
+61 08 6488 3647 email: [email protected]
In the office on Mondays and Thursdays - for urgent enquiries please phone Neville Bruce on 6488 3292

www.ihs.uwa.edu.au