ANU Africa Network

I am passing on the message from Tanya Lyons ‘president@afsaap.org.au’ It is really for information only since the event is in Sydney. However if you want to register and attend please email david.lucas@anu.edu.au and Tanya’s message with a working link will be sent

Dear AFSAAP,

Hello, Anne Worthington here from Q&A at ABC TV.

This Monday September 11th we have Senator Lucy Gichuhi joining the Q&A panel for the first time.

I thought some of your members and other contacts who are based in and around Sydney might be interested in coming along and being part of the studio audience.

Can you please pass the below information out amongst your contacts?

Thanking you in advance.

Kind regards,
Anne Worthington

Kenyan born Independent SA Senator Lucy Gichuhi will join the Q&A panel on Monday 11th September from the ABC’s SYDNEY studios from 8.30pm.

Also joining host Tony Jones on the panel to answer YOUR questions;

Zed Sesilja – Liberal Senator & Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs
Mark Dreyfus – Shadow Attorney General & Shadow Minister for National Security
A.C. Grayling – Author and Philosopher
Merav Michaeli -Visiting Israeli MP

We are currently taking audience bookings for the show.

To join the audience here’s what you need to do:

Register here.

In Q.13 (how did you hear about us) please write “AFSAAP” as a reference.

Someone from Q&A will then be in touch with more details.

Vijetta Bachraz is a PhD scholar in the Crawford School and was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship with the Australian National University in 2015 to undertake a study on the institution of primary education in Mauritius and its influence on the positioning of children. This study will contribute to the policy landscape to promote more equitable outcomes for all children enrolled in government schools. Her research methodology identifies with the view that children are not only right-bearing citizens but also important social actors who can express views about their own lives given the opportunity.

Abstract:
The trajectory towards ‘a good life’ is said to rely on the ability of the citizen to amass cultural, social and cognitive capital, with childhood representing a fundamental life phase where parental and societal investments interplay to secure the future of children. This has led to a greater focus on education for the development of human capital to ensure future economic productivity. Mauritius is no exception to this trend. The race to the best secondary schools starts even before children turn five, when the greatest concern for most parents is to secure admission for their children in primary schools with a good track record. Parallel to this competitive nature of primary education, the private tuition ‘industry’ has flourished and further contributes to socio-economic inequalities.
Education is a powerful institution where goals towards ‘a good life’ are realised and reproduced; where children’s bodies are controlled and shaped through regimes of discipline, learning and development, maturation and skill. However, contemporary childhoods are also moving towards individualisation with children increasingly experiencing relative independence, autonomy and choice. We know very little about the ways in which children are positioned and position themselves as dependent/independent and regulated/unregulated within and between their home and school lives; being subject to and reproducing a particular construction of childhood whilst at the same time actively engaged in its alternative construction. This study aims to explore these tensions to provide insights into the ways in which the institution of primary education shapes children’s sense of self, their sense of belonging to their families and wider community and how it influences the broader construction of who children are in the present.

A presentation and book launch by David Coltart
Former Zimbabwe Senator and human rights lawyer

Date: Wednesday 9 August, 6:00pm
Refreshments served from 5:30pm

Venue: AIIA Conference Centre – Stephen House
32 Thesiger Court
Deakin ACT 2600

“Ever since Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence from Britain over 50 years ago on 11 November 1965, the country now known as Zimbabwe has been in turmoil. There were great hopes when Zimbabwe obtained its independence from Britain in 1980 that Robert Mugabe would steer the country down a new road of democracy and tolerance. However the last 37 years of Mugabe’s rule have been marked by violence, electoral fraud, corruption, abuse of power and the collapse of a once thriving economy.
Senator David Coltart was born in Zimbabwe in 1957 and has lived through this tumultuous period, eventually becoming Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture in the government of national unity brokered by the AU and SADC in 2009. His recently published book The Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe sheds new light on why Zimbabwe remains in such an oppressed state. The presentation will draw on the lessons learnt by Coltart from his unique insider’s perspective as a human rights lawyer and opposition politician in Zimbabwe since 1983.”
The book will be launched by Matthew Neuhaus, First Assistant Secretary, Middle East and Africa Division, DFAT and former Australian Ambassador to Zimbabwe.

________________________________________

This is an AIIA ACT Branch event.

Registration is encouraged through the following link:
https://aiiaact.tidyhq.com/public/schedule/events/14538-opposing-tyranny-lessons-from-50-years-of-struggle-for-democracy-in-zimbabwe

Registration is also available at the door.