Next Week In Focus

The University of Auckland | 1

Weekly newsletter for University staff | 6 October 2014

Diary

Tuesday 7 October Service and Leadership Award Workshop 12-1pm, Club Central, Kate Edgar IC. Come along to a workshop on the Service and Leadership Award and hear from two members of the award panel. Get hints and tips on what they are looking for in an application. Gain official recognition for the skills you have developed outside the classroom and the contribution you make to the community. History seminar Professor Stefan Collini, Cambridge University: What’s happening to universities? Historical and comparative perspectives. 6.30-7.30pm, Room 439, Engineering Building (Building 401). In recent years, universities across the world have been experiencing dramatic changes in their forms of funding, assessment, and governance, leaving many (both inside and outside these institutions) alarmed and disoriented. In this lecture, Stefan Collini attempts to place these changes in a comparative and historical perspective, examining some of the forms taken by the complex dialectical relation between universities and their host societies over the past hundred years or more. He then goes on to consider the assumptions underlying current policy and to ask what kinds of university we can expect to see develop in the twenty-first century. Stefan Collini is one of the most distinctive and respected voices in public debates about the nature of universities and their place in modern society, especially following the publication in 2012 of What Are Universities For?, while Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain (2006), is a major analysis of the role of the intellectual and its place in British culture. His other books include Public Moralists (1991), Matthew Arnold: a Critical Portrait (1994), English Pasts: Essays in History and Culture (1999), and Common Reading: Critics, Historians, Publics (2008). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a frequent contributor to The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, and other publications, as well as an occasional broadcaster. He is Professor of

English Literature and Intellectual History at Cambridge University.

Wednesday 8 October Library workshop How to master Google Scholar. 2-3pm, Room IC 231, Level 2, Kate Edger Information Commons, City Campus. Google Scholar offers a quick and easy way to look up academic articles over a range of subjects. This workshop will introduce basic and advanced techniques for finding academic resources on Google Scholar. Book at http://library.auckland.ac.nz/booking/ Queries to ext 89744 or learningskillsworkshops@auckland.ac.nz Fermata seminar Mark Baynes: Analytic, Descriptive and prescriptive components of Evolving jazz: a new model based on the works of Brad Mehldau. 5.30-7pm, Music Theatre, 6 Symonds Street, Auckland Central. This talk will detail the formal analysis of improvisation contained within the music of jazz pianist Brad Mehldau by focusing on some of his transcriptions; in addition, this lecture will also define and exemplify a new approach to jazz analysis derived from a study of holistic consonance and dissonance, and cognitive research into perceived motivation in music by cognitivists such as Huron and Meyer. Hosted by the School of Music. Free. Queries to concerts@auckland.ac.nz Rewind: throwback movies The History Boys (2006). Based on a play by Alan Bennett. Starring Richard Griffiths, Dominic Cooper, Russell Tovey, James Corden and Frances de la Tour. 7.30pm, Maidment Theatre, Alfred Street. Cost $8. Telephone bookings and enquiries: (09) 308 2383. Auckland Branch of the Society for Legal and Social Philosophy seminar Professor Tim Mulgan, University of Auckland: Ethics for possible futures. 5pm, Upstairs Dining Room, Old Government House, University of Auckland. Moral philosophy has traditionally focused on relations between contemporaries, leaving the future to take care of itself. I explore the moral

implications of two distinct credible futures: a broken world damaged by climate change or other disaster, and a post-Singularity future dominated by superintelligent machines. I argue that, once we take these futures seriously, we must re-imagine some of our most basic moral ideals. Tim Mulgan is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland, and Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of The Demands of Consequentialism (Oxford University Press 2001), Future People (Oxford University Press 2006), Understanding Utilitarianism (Acumen 2007), Ethics for a Broken World (Acumen/McGill-Queens University Press 2011), and Purpose in the Universe: the moral and metaphysical case for ananthropocentric purposivism (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). All are welcome to attend. Diwali celebrations on campus 6pm, Level 1 Foyer, OGGB, Owen G Glen Building, 12 Graftpn Road. Popularly known as the “festival of light”, the University of Auckland invites you to come and experience one of the world’s best loved festivals. Featuring Indian food, beautiful lights, performances, henna tattoos, student clubs. Traditional dress welcome. Check out www.auckland.ac.nz/diwali for more information.

Thursday 9 October Budgeting workshop 1-2pm, iSPACE, Level 4, Kate Edger Information Commons. Get moneywise. Free sessions delivered by SavY student facilitators. Hints and tips on how to manage on a tight budget. Visit www.auckland.ac.nz/budget

Friday 10 October Lunchtime Concert Chamber music ensembles. 1.05-1.55pm, Music Theatre, 6 Symonds Street. A series showcasing School of Music students in both individual and ensemble settings. Hosted by the School of Music. Free. Queries to concerts@auckland.ac.nz

The University of Auckland | 2

Llewelyn Jones Piano Composition Prize Concert 4-6pm, Music Theatre, 6 Symonds Street, Auckland. Original piano works by composition students will be performed in this annual competition, founded in memory of noted Auckland pianist and composer Llewelyn Jones (1895–1978). Admission is free. Queries to concerts@auckland.ac.nz Rewind: throwback movies Pulp Fiction (1994), R18. Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis and Harvey Keitel 7.30pm, Maidment Theatre, Alfred Street. Cost: $8. Telephone bookings and enquiries: (09) 308 2383.

Saturday 11 October Artist talk 1pm, Gus Fisher Gallery, 74 Shortland Street. Stanley Palmer, printmaker, will discuss the process and evolution of his bamboo etchings, which were gifted to many schools in the Auckland region in the 1970s, and also form part of the University’s art collection