The Cairns Institute Fellow Dr Kearrin Sims coordinates the JCU Research Ethical Development Symposium, now in its second year. It will be held 27-29 September at The Cairns Institute.

This year will feature three notable keynotes; Associate Professor Susan Engel, Ng Shui Meng and Sekai Holland. These keynote addresses will be made available to the public.

Associate Professor Susan Engel is Co-Director, Future of Rights Centre, and Associate Professor, Politics and International Studies, University of Wollongong. Her research is on the impact of neoliberalism on the theory and practices of development and development finance. The title of her paper is ‘Australia and the Third World Project’. This public lecture will be streamed on 27 September at 10.00 am here.

Shui-Meng Ng holds a MA in Sociology from the University of Michigan in 1973, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Hawaii in 1979. Over the span of more than 40 years, Shui-Meng Ng accumulated a broad range of experience working in different countries and in different fields. From the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies, to UNICEF in Lao then later in Timor-Leste. In 2012, her husband, Sombath Somphone, a respected and well-known development leader, disappeared in Vientiane. The title of her paper is ‘The Education of the Heart is the Heart of Education: Path to compassionate social transformation’. This public lecture will be streamed on 28 September at 4.30pm here.

Dr Sekai Holland is a member of the Zimbabwean government and formerly Zimbabwean Co-Minister of State for National Healing, Reconciliation, and Integration. She has dedicated her life to campaigning for human rights, democracy, and the empowerment of woman. Her courageous spirit was recognised in 2012 with the Sydney Peace Prize, Australia’s only international prize for peace. Sekai was a founder of Australia’s Anti-Apartheid Movement in the late 1960s and also helped to establish the Murrawina Child Care Centre in Redfern and was active within the Aboriginal community during the land rights movement The title of her paper is ‘Zimbabwe Peacebuilding Initiative’ and it will be streamed on 29 September at 4.30pm here.

For further information, contact kearrin.sims@jcu.edu.au