Forensic Investigation of Victims of the Batavia Mutiny, 1629
Seminar
On 4 June 1629, the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) retourschip Batavia wrecked on Morning Reef, in the Houtman Abrolhos, approximately 65 km off the Western Australian coast. The macabre events following the wrecking saw more than 100 individuals murdered over a three-month period, by…
Reading Radiation: Evidence and Future-Making in Post-Disaster Fukushima
Lecture/seminar
How does radiation function as evidence? Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Fukushima, Japan site of the 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, this talk examines how radiation is activated, contested, and suppressed in discourse across a range of sites—museum…
Stepping Stones in the Indian Ocean: New Archaeological Evidence for Trade and Interaction in the Comoros Archipelago, East Africa
Lecture/seminar
New archaeological evidence from the Comoros Archipelago reveals its pivotal role as a maritime crossroads linking East Africa, Madagascar, and the wider Indian Ocean. In this public lecture, Associate Professor Alison Crowther will unveil recent discoveries that are rewriting our understanding of…
Care Circuits: Yolŋu, kidney disease and the work of policy translation
Lecture/seminar
An epidemic of end-stage kidney disease in remote Australian First Nations communities calls attention to the care practices that enable patients’ blood to flow through dialysis machines in order for it to continue to flow through their bodies. The care practices of patients, their families, health…
Reconstructing locomotion in the human lineage: integrating new morphological and biomechanical approaches
Seminar
At some point in our evolutionary history, we transitioned from being an ape-like arboreal species to becoming a committed terrestrial biped. However, the mode and timing of this change is not well understood, and it is becoming increasingly evident that fossil human ancestors were highly varied in…
“Fighting not sinking”: How emotions impact Pacific diplomacy, geopolitics and climate security
Lecture/seminar
Emotions impact Pacific diplomacy, causing ripples and rifts in regional geopolitics and climate security. Islands, and atolls in particular, are often constructed by Western science as locations of vulnerability. Sinking islands have become a fatalistic visage that looms over Pacific islands in…
Credit as care and financial frontier. An ethnography of predatory inclusion under Brazil’s ‘fintech revolution’
Lecture/seminar
In Brazil, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a rise in poverty and accelerated the already ignited ‘fintech revolution,’ pushing a policy agenda of financial inclusion that has been transforming Brazilian society for more than a decade. In the aftermath of the pandemic, indebtedness was at a record…