Crossing the ‘Green Sea’: palaeoecological signatures of early maritime mobility and remote island colonisation in the tropical Indian Ocean.
Seminar
As humans have colonised new places, they often initiate dramatic environmental change, even in the distant past. On remote islands, where levels of endemism are high, species and environments are often particularly vulnerable to the effects of introduced species like humans, and the plants and…
Unsettling nature: Cross-cultural conversations about potential bioengineered conservation in the Torres Strait, Australia
Seminar
Applied over generations, a bioengineered gene drive promises to radically reduce invasive species’ populations through suppressed breeding. As this technology develops, synthetic biology (synbio) scientists have identified islands as potential environments in which to trial the release of approved…
An ordeal of peoplehood: representations of Indigenous collectivity in the 2023 referendum - POSTPONED
Seminar
Presenting themselves as sovereign peoples (and not just as citizens of Australia), Indigenous Australians struggle over therms in which to represent their collectivity. In 2012, I argued that their collective being has come to be rendered in two distinct idioms - 'population' and 'people' - that…
European Travellers to Greece and the Tomb of the Athenians at Marathon
Seminar
This paper traces the interpretations applied to the mound or soros on the plain of Marathon from the later eighteenth century through the nineteenth century by amateur archaeologists. These interpretations were based on flakes of obsidian found in the soil of the mound that were…
From Applied to Expert Social anthropology: Emerging Concepts, Terms, and Definitions
Seminar
Since the 1970s, applied social anthropology has developed into the field’s best-known and most widely adopted specialization. In the 2018 Global Survey of Anthropological Practices conducted by the World Council of Anthropological Associations, 17% of respondents identified themselves as applied…
Oyster Restoration as More-than-Human Embodied Practice of Metabolism
Seminar
Local oyster producers and fisheries experts in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan's primary oyster-producing region, have observed a decline in oyster growth over the past few decades. The suboptimal growth of oysters is attributed to changes in seawater nutrient composition, and this issue has multiple…
Evolution and Variation in Pleistocene Homo
Seminar
This seminar will touch on a variety of subjects related to variation and evolution of Pleistocene Homo, including virtual reconstructions of fragmentary fossils, quantitative approaches to cranial shape variation and development of the calvaria in juvenile individuals. These different avenues more…