Media Alerts 2009
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
UNSW@ADFA OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Contrary to media reports, the Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA) is open for business as usual today.
Only minimal disruption to classes is expected as the result of the 24 hour stoppage by NTEU members.
All possible steps have been taken to ensure students are not adversely affected by today’s stoppage. In order to minimise disruption, academic staff intending to take industrial action were asked to inform their students that particular classes would be cancelled.
The other two unions representing staff in enterprise bargaining negotiations, the CPSU and the AMWU, are not taking industrial action.
Across UNSW campuses, including ADFA, only 800 staff are members of the NTEU, out of a total workforce of more than 5,000. Australian Electoral Commission figures show that 430 NTEU members voted in favour of the 24 hour stoppage - this represents less than 10 percent of the University's workforce.
Media contact in UNSW:
Judy Brookman, UNSW Director of Communications
tel: 02 9385 3249 / 0421 061 251
Media contact in UNSW@ADFA: Natalia Komarova, Public Relations Manager, UNSW@ADFA
tel: 02 6268 8760, mobile: 04 34 662 874, email: n.komarova@adfa.edu.au
21 May 2009
THE WARMAN STUDENT DESIGN-AND-BUILD COMPETITION
WHO: School of Aerospace, Civil and Mechanical Engineering (ACME), UNSW@ADFAWHAT: 2009 Warman Student Design-and-Build Competition
WHY: to determine finalists for the National Competition
WHEN: 2-4 pm Wednesday 27 May 2009
WHERE: Main Laboratory, Level 1, Building 18, School of ACME, UNSW@ADFA, Northcott Drive, Canberra
Background:
Each year, Weir Minerals and Engineers Australia sponsor a Design and Build Competition among second year mechanical engineering students throughout Australia and New Zealand. All second year aeronautical and mechanical engineering students at UNSW @ ADFA are participating in the competition as a part of their studies in design. The winning team from the campus competition will go on to the National Finals to be held in Sydney in September.
Project "BATON" asks the students to design, build and prove a prototype device in a laboratory environment that serves to automate a baton exchange.
Setting the Scene:
THE CONTEXT: The Gondwanan societal leadership is undergoing change as a new generation emerges. To mark the transition, a ceremony symbolising the passing of responsibility from the serving to the newly appointed council members is to be staged in Capital Square. This is expected to be a huge community event and the Gondwanan Office of Protocol (GOP) is keen to show some flair and fanfare within the proceedings.
THE CHALLENGE: The GOP has devised a design and build competition and has advertised it widely across the galaxy to find a fitting finale to the celebration. Their concept and the competition specification call for two autonomous devices working together in series to pass a sculpture representing the planet’s prosperity around two edges of the Square. Symbolically, the sculpture will pass from the retiring leaders to the new both safely and quickly.
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Fortunately, teams of engineering students from Earth are about to visit Gondwana as part of their work experience programmes and the GOP is keen to engage them in the competition. On previous visits such engineering students have rendered invaluable assistance with solutions to similar engineering problems, and the Gondwanans again are hoping to benefit from the innovative budding engineers.
You are invited to come and see how Australia’s future military leaders tackle this complicated challenge.
Preliminaries will begin at 1.40 pm, with the first round of the Campus Heads starting at approximately 2 pm. The second round will start at approximately 2.45 pm.
Media Contact: Natalia Komarova, Public Relations Manager, UNSW@ADFA
tel: 02 6268 8760, mobile: 04 34 662 874, email: n.komarova@adfa.edu.au
5 May 2009
Book Launch: The Empire of Civilization: the Evolution of an Imperial Idea
WHO: Officially launched by Professor the Hon Kim Beazley AC
WHAT: Book Launch: “The Empire of Civilization: the Evolution of an Imperial Idea”
by Dr Brett Bowden
WHEN: 4.45pm for 5.00 pm, Thursday 14th May, 2009
WHERE: Lecture Theatre South 1, Bld 30, UNSW@ADFA, Australian Defence Force Academy, Northcott Drive, Canberra, ACT
Background:
The term “civilization” comes with considerable baggage, dichotomizing people, cultures, and histories as “civilized”—or not. The idea of civilization has been deployed throughout history to justify all manner of interventions and sociopolitical engineering, and all too often actions that follow the language of civilization are anything but civilized. In his book The Empire of Civilization: the Evolution of an Imperial Idea, Brett Bowden examines how the idea of civilization has informed our thinking about more than ten centuries of global encounters between the different peoples of our world.
From the Crusades to the colonial era to the global war on terror, this sweeping volume exposes “civilization” as a stage-managed account of history that legitimizes imperialism, uniformity, and conformity to Western standards, culminating in a liberal-democratic global order. Along the way, Bowden explores the variety of confrontations and conquests—as well as those peoples and places excluded or swept aside—undertaken in the name of civilization. Concluding that the “West and the rest” have more commonalities than differences, this provocative and engaging book ultimately points the way toward an authentic intercivilizational dialogue that emphasizes cooperation over clashes.
Dr Brett Bowden is a Senior Lecturer in World Politics and Politics of Globalisation at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA). Brett received a Bachelor of International Studies (Hons) from Flinders University of South Australia (1997-2000) and a PhD from The Australian National University (2004). Prior to joining UNSW@ADFA in July 2007 he held positions at the ANU and at the University of Queensland.