An interdisciplinary discussion group, launched by Prof Brian Schmidt.

Debates about Two Cultures may be buried in snow, or sand in the case of this wide brown land, but Sullivan’s Creek flows across our national university physically separating the sciences on one bank and the humanities and social sciences on the other. Or so it would seem. Conversations across the Creek is an effort, under the auspices of the Head of the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) and the Director of the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS), to provide a space for continuing dialogue among ANU scientists, social scientists and humanities scholars – with the aim of providing food for thought (and lunch) and of stimulating or unearthing research and teaching collaborations across the University.

At meetings scheduled on the second or third Friday of each month at lunchtime from 12.00-1.30pm, two humanities scholars or social scientists and two scholars from the physical sciences will be invited to communicate their latest research to colleagues from all over the University. These four 10-minute presentations will be followed by interdisciplinary discussions and will take place over an informal lunch at the Humanities Research Centre conference room in the A.D. Hope Building (14).

Conversations across the Creek has invited the Vice Chancellor, Professor Brian Schmidt, to be the first to discuss his research at this first meeting to be held from 1.00pm 2.30pm on Thursday 24 March (the day before Good Friday).

Guest Speakers

• Professor Brian Schmidt, VC, Australian National University
• Professor Margaret Jolly, Professor/ ARC Laureate Fellow School of Culture, History and Language, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
• Professor Janette Lindesay, Associate Director Education & Deputy Director, Fenner School of Environment and Society ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment  
• Professor Will Christie, Director, Humanities Research Centre, School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, College of Arts and Social Sciences