Open Forums

Equity and Diversity Open Forums explore a range of social issues of relevance to UWS and the Greater Sydney community.

The forums are free and everyone is welcome to attend, staff, students and the general public.

Venue: Parramatta campus
Time: Weeknights 6 pm to 8 pm

2010 Forums

8 April- Can we trust Generation Y with Australia's future?

Guest Speaker is social researcher and novelist Hugh Mackay.

25 February- Being OUT West - A discussion about homophobic violence

MC, UWS lecturer Dr James Arvanitakis will chair a discussion on homophobic violence with guest speakers:

• Greg Harland a community representative, sharing his story of homophobic violence in Blacktown
• Superintendent Donna Adney, the NSW Police Force Corporate Spokesperson on GLBTI issues
• Vanessa Viaggio , NSW Attorney General's Department Crime Prevention Unit
• Robert Knapman and Nancy de Catro from ACON's Anti-Violence Project   

2009 Forums

10 November  - The Future of the Media Industry

Special Guest Speaker,Phillip Adams AO, legendary broadcaster and film maker. Host of ABC Radio National's Late Night Live. Author and Social Commentator.                  

10 September - Is AIDS Over?

Special Guest Speaker, The Honourable Michael Kirby, AC CMG, Retired Justice of the High Court

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12 August - Is Australia Giving Refugees a Fair Go?

Guest Speakers Denis O'Brien, Principal Member of the Australian Government's Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal and Jacqueline Everitt, well known refugee advocate and author of the The Bitter Shore, the story of Shayan Badraie's detention and the Badraie family's life after detention. 

• Speech made by Denis O'Brien, Principal Member of the Australian Government's Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal

10 June - Winning and Losing Elections

Guest speakers political analyst Mr Malcolm Mackerras AO, and Dr Graeme Starr a former Liberal State Director and Federal Ministerial Adviser.

23 April - The Personal and the Political. Women in Australian Politics 

Guest speaker The Hon Tanya Plibersek, (Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of Women website) (opens in a new window) talking about the history of women in politics and about her own experiences and political life.

4 March - Human Rights, Respect and Inclusion and Launch of the 2009 UWS Year of Respect and Inclusion

The Honourable Robert McClelland, Federal Attorney General (Attorney-General for Australia website) (opens in a new window), discussed the Australian human rights protection system and how it contributes to respect and inclusion in the national and tertiary education contexts.

• Speech made by the Attorney-General Hon Robert McClelland MP

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2008 Forums

Surviving Genocide - Personal Stories from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Mr Marcel Weyland OAM, acclaimed translator of Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz's epic poem Pan Tadeusz and Ghetto poems Echoes - Poems of the Holocaust and Ms Halina Robinson, survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, author of The Cork on the Waves (her life story 1930 - 1957) told their personal stories and commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. 

• Genocide Forum Opening Address by the Director, Equity and Diversity Dr Sev Ozdowski

Tibet and it's people

Senator Andrew Bartlett Deputy Leader of the Australian Democrats spoke on the current situation in Tibet and Tenpa Dugdak, a Tibetan refugee living in the Sydney community told his story. There was also a screening of I Tibet a short film about Tibetans living in Australia.

• Presentation on Tibet and it's People by the Director, Equity and Diversity Dr Sev Ozdowski
• Presentation on Tibet and it's People by the Director, Equity and Diversity Dr Sev Ozdowski (PowerPoint 2.16Mb)

Treaty of Waitangi

The Forum provided an opportunity for the Western Sydney community to learn about the history of the treaty and to hear from Dr Benjamin Pittman, a direct descendant of a Maori Elder who signed the Treaty.

• Presentation on the Treaty of Waitangi by Dr Benjamin Pittman
• Presentation on the Treaty of Waitangi by Dr Benjamin Pittman (PowerPoint 2.61Mb)

Families in the West

Rachael Wallbank, Kerry Robinson, Cristyn Davies and Emily Gray told personal stories and engaged the audience in a panel discussion on the issues faced by the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (GLBTI) people and their families.

• Diversity in Sexual Formation and the Tyranny of Difference Families in the West. Presentation by Rachael Wallbank
• Diversity in Sexual Formation and the Tyranny of Difference Families in the West. Presentation by Rachael Wallbank (PowerPoint 2.70Mb)
  
• Issues Facing Queer Families in the Inner West and Western Sydney. Presentation by Robinson and Davies
• Issues Facing Queer Families in the Inner West and Western Sydney. Presentation by Robinson and Davies (PowerPoint 1.3Mb)

Escaping the Poverty Trap

Professor Tony Vinson, Australia's leading authority on communal inequity and Dr John Valzon, sociologist and CEO of the St Vincent de Paul National Council discussed the distribution and nature of poverty in Australia today.

• Dropping off the Edge: Mapping Disadvantage in Australia. Presentation by Professor Tony Vinson
• Dropping off the Edge: Mapping Disadvantage in Australia. Presentation by Professor Tony Vinson (PowerPoint 2.62Mb)

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