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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251013T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251013T183000
DTSTAMP:20260428T112135
CREATED:20251009T004425Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251009T004425Z
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SUMMARY:Quantifying the Human? – Dr Cristian Larroulet Philippi – The University of Melbourne
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: Quantitative measurement in the human sciences remains both widespread and controversial. Are depression scales\, intelligence tests\, etc. valid measurement instruments? Do they deliver quantitative or merely ordinal information? I discuss two approaches for understanding practices of quantitative measurement of theoretical attributes in the early stages of research. One uses causal notions to characterize dispositional attributes and to understand how they relate to measurement indications. It aims at standard epistemic desiderata in science (discovery\, explanation\, prediction) and offers good answers to traditional worries about human attributes (namely\, are they really quantitative?) and about their measurement instruments (namely\, are they valid?). A second approach uses the notion of value (as worked out in Dan Hausman’s 2015 Valuing Health) to make sense of quantification practices. This approach does not resemble what scientists think of their measurement practices: it is not designed for the testing of tentative concepts but rather to standardize political decision making. Yet\, I argue\, this approach is the most plausible candidate for making sense of some human sciences’ measurement practices as quantifying anything. Such is the case for measurements that (i) combine distinct dimensions of the phenomena at stake and (ii) for which we don’t observe serious efforts aiming at embedding such measurements in predictive and explanatory networks. I illustrate with two examples: depression severity (HAMD) and the Human Development Index (HDI). \nBio: Cristian Larroulet Philippi is the inaugural RW Seddon Fellow in Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne. He obtained his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge in 2023. His research in philosophy of science has a strong emphasis on methodological questions pertinent to the social sciences (including economics\, psychology\, and parts of medicine). Both his PhD dissertation and much of his current research focus on the challenges around quantitative measurement in the social sciences. He also works on values in science\, and has previously worked on causal inference. Before turning to philosophy of science\, Cristian studied and did research in applied micro-economics.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/quantifying-the-human-dr-cristian-larroulet-philippi-the-university-of-melbourne/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\,Level 5\, Room 501\, University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
ORGANIZER;CN="School of History and Philosophy of Science":MAILTO:hps.admin@sydney.edu.au
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251103T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251103T183000
DTSTAMP:20260428T112135
CREATED:20251019T220024Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251019T220024Z
UID:142-1762191000-1762194600@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:GenAI and mental health - Elena Walsh - University of Wollongong
DESCRIPTION:Human beings are social and dependent creatures. We rely on friends\, romantic partners\, family\, communities\, therapists\, and other confidantes for support\, insight\, and understanding. And yet\, we have recently entered an era in which many now seek support from artificial agents powered by generative AI. These AI agents are increasingly used — by design or request — to simulate roles we once thought only human beings could play. Among the most rapidly growing applications is the use of large language models (LLMs) to provide emotional support or to simulate certain types of therapeutic dialogue. The talk first places this development in context of a brief characterisation of psychotherapy as a ‘living tradition’ in the sense of MacIntyre (1981): not a rigid and fixed set of practices\, but a set of goals and methods that are continually critiqued and reinvented over time. Two aspects of therapeutic dialogue are singled out for comparison against LLM-based emotional or therapeutic dialogue. The first is the role of empathy in treatment. The second is the capacity of dialogue to restore ‘hermeneutical justice’ (Fricker\, 2007) — that is\, the restoration of vocabularies that allow experience to be accurately named and understood. The dimensions of empathy and hermeneutical justice are used as a framework to compare traditional human-to-human therapy against LLM-based dialogue or support. The talk concludes by linking the rise of LLM use for emotional or therapeutic support to globally under-resourced mental health care systems and significant barries to accessing mental health care\, especially for vulnerable populations. \nBio: Elena Walsh works across the Philosophy of Psychology\, the Philosophy of Science\, and the Philosophy of AI. She has expertise in the study of emotion and emotional dispositions\, drawing especially on dynamical systems theory\, life history theory\, and predictive processing models of mind. Her current research places contemporary research on emotion in dialogue with the rapidly-developing approaches to machine learning coming to define 21st-century notions of both artificial and biological intelligence. She is interested in how norms and values may be embedded into decision-making processes undertaken by AI and data-driven technologies\, and how human interaction with new technologies can impact our characters and regulate our attentional and emotional capacities. \nShe has expertise in related areas including Moral Psychology (especially the relationship between emotion and reason) and Epistemology. She has a longstanding interest in Buddhist\, Asian and comparative approaches to philosophy. Her other philosophical interests include the role of emotion and motivation in intelligent systems\, and the opacity and ethical governance of emerging AI. Elena completed her PhD in 2019 at the University of Sydney. Her dissertation adopted a broadly naturalistic approach to provide a theoretical framework that explains how emotional dispositions are constructed in individuals over time. \nShe has previously worked for the Department of Premier and Cabinet as a policy advisor\, and as a researcher at the Practical Justice Initiative at the University of New South Wales.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/genai-and-mental-health-elena-walsh-university-of-wollongong/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\, Ground Floor\, Auditorium 1\, The University of Sydney\, 2006\, Australia
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251117T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251117T183000
DTSTAMP:20260428T112135
CREATED:20251110T225616Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251110T230059Z
UID:150-1763400600-1763404200@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:The Ian Langham Memorial Lecture - Uncle Rob Cooley\, Gamay Rangers
DESCRIPTION:Bio: Uncle Rob Cooley is a saltwater man with connections to Gamay-Botany Bay and the NSW South Coast. Currently\, Uncle Rob is Senior Ranger and Leader of the Gamay Rangers\, a group of Indigenous Rangers who undertake natural and cultural resource management activities on cultural areas within Gamay and on conservation land owned by the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council. In this role Uncle Rob leads the coastal management of Gamay\, and has promoted co-design and co-leadership in coastal management\, bringing public awareness to Indigenous Knowledge of Coastal and Marine systems. \nIan Langham (1942-1984) was one of the pioneers of the academic study of HPS in Australia. Ian was an active exponent of the view that historians of science must examine the political\, social and economic implications of scientific change\, and believed it was essential for science students in particular to have their attention directed to these implications in order more fully to understand their own work and career choices. This Memorial Lecture aims to sustain and encourage this particular form of critical inquiry at the University of Sydney.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/the-ian-langham-memorial-lecture-uncle-rob-cooley-gamay-rangers/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\,Level 5\, Room 501\, University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260302T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260302T183000
DTSTAMP:20260428T112135
CREATED:20260219T034758Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260223T215003Z
UID:157-1772472600-1772476200@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Planetary Health beyond Spaceship Earth? - Warwick Anderson
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nFor more than ten years\, concern about the impacts on human health of degradation of the earth’s life-support systems has been expressed in terms of ‘planetary health’. The current and future effects of climate change on health and well-being thus come under the rubric of planetary health. We realise now that the health of all species depends on ecosystem health\, now scaled up to encompass the planet. But what ideas shaped this understanding of our dependence on the planet as a semi-closed feedback system? Many of the concepts of planetary health – including ‘life-support systems’\, ‘safe operating systems\,’ and even ‘planetary boundaries’ – derive from 1960s systems theories and cybernetics\, as developed in the NASA space program. Planetary health is still largely confined by our sense of living on spaceship earth. How might we come to imagine planetary health otherwise\, beyond the limits of a closed system? \nBio \nWarwick Anderson is Janet Dora Hine Professor of Politics\, Governance and Ethics in the Discipline of Anthropology and the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney. He was formerly an ARC Laureate Fellow in the History Department at Sydney. A co-conspirator in postcolonial studies of science\, he has written extensively on science\, race\, and colonialism; medicine and white masculinity; kuru\, cannibalism\, and sorcerer scientists; and autoimmunity and tolerance of self. His current research is focused on disease ecology and planetary health. In 2023\, he was awarded the John Desmond Bernal Prize of the Society for Social Studies of Science\, in recognition of lifetime achievement in science and technology studies. In 2025\, he received the Arthur J. Viseltear Prize for lifetime achievement in public health history from the American Public Health Association.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/planetary-health-beyond-spaceship-earth-warwick-anderson/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building Lecture Theatre 275\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 2\, Room 275\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Seminar,Seminars
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260309T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260309T183000
DTSTAMP:20260428T112135
CREATED:20260303T053052Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260303T053311Z
UID:171-1773077400-1773081000@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: “Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South” documents the impact of racial segregation and the fight for medical civil rights in the state psychiatric hospitals in Georgia\, Alabama\, and Mississippi between 1948 and 1972. Drawing on extensive archival and legal records\, as well as first-hand accounts\, Kylie Smith explores the ways that local Black communities and families negotiated mental health care in the context of white supremacy and fought for their rights as citizens. By placing the history of these hospitals in the context of the Civil Rights movement\, the book adds to both the history of psychiatry and the history of Civil Rights\, demonstrating the multiple terrains on which activists fought to end segregation. In doing so\, Smith argues that psychiatry itself was deeply entwined with the Southern racial project\, and that Black patients were particularly vulnerable to populist politics. This combination of political expediency and scientific racism created hospitals which operated as little more than prisons in the wake of the plantation\, and laid the foundation for racist approaches to mental health care today. \nBio: Dr. Kylie Smith was until recently Associate Professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and Associate Faculty in the Department of History at Emory University in Atlanta. While in the US\, Kylie taught courses on race and health in US history and authored two monographs in the history of psychiatry.  \nHer first book\, Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing\, published by Rutgers University Press in 2020\, won the Lavinia L. Dock Award from the American Association for the History of Nursing and the American Journal of Nursing’s Book of the Year Award in the area of History and Public Policy. \nHer new book\, Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South was published by the University of North Carolina Press in January 2026. Initial research for the book was supported by the National Library of Medicine (NIH) G13 Grant\, and thanks to a grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Digital Publishing in the Humanities program\, the book has been released in print\, as a free downloadable E-book\, and an Open Access Digitally enhanced monograph on the Manifold Scholar platform. \nIn between monographs\, Kylie co-edited\, with Courtney Thompson\, the collection “Do Less Harm: Ethical Questions for Health Historians”. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2025\, the book contains 28 essays on the challenges of developing an ethics of care for historical work at the intersection of health\, medicine\, and justice. \nKylie received her PhD (a study of history of juvenile delinquency in Australia) from the University of Wollongong and has returned to Australia to continue her work on a history of forensic psychiatry and juvenile detention in colonial regimes.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/jim-crow-in-the-asylum-psychiatry-and-civil-rights-in-the-american-south/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building 450\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 4\, Room 450\, The University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260323T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260323T183000
DTSTAMP:20260428T112135
CREATED:20260311T072601Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260311T072601Z
UID:178-1774287000-1774290600@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Colonization Resistance and the Gut Microbiota ca 1960-1990: Persistence of an Ecological Paradigm in Medical Microbiology - Nicolas Ramussen (UNSW)
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: In the 1950s an alarming response to technocratic medicine emerged: patients were suffering severe\, often fatal gut infections as a result of antibiotic treatment. This talk describes how in the 1960s-1970s\, research into the problem revealed that the indigenous microbial flora of the gut play a major role in protection from disease\, and thus established one of the foundations of microbiome science.  It also relates the ideas guiding these postwar investigations to much earlier microbiological thought dating to the turn of the 20th century\, and explores the relationship of this research field to the politics of the long 1960s. \n\nBio: Nic Rasmussen is Professor Emeritus of history of science at UNSW\, and presently serving as Chief Editor of Journal of the History of Biology. His research interests include the Cold War and the rise of molecular biology\, pharmaceutical development and its relationship with nonmedical drug use\, and the influence of commercial sponsorship on biomedical research.  Publications have included Picture Control:  The Electron Microscope and the Transformation of Biology in America\, 1940-1960 (Stanford 1997); On Speed: From Benzedrine to Adderall (NYU 2008); Gene Jockeys: Life Science and the Rise of Biotech Enterprise (Johns Hopkins\, 2014); Fat in the Fifties: America’s First Obesity Crisis (Johns Hopkins 2019). He is currently working with philosopher Maureen O’Malley (Sydney University)  and historian Claas Kirchhelle (INSERM\, France) on an ARC-funded historical epistemology study of the microbiome concept.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/colonization-resistance-and-the-gut-microbiota-ca-1960-1990-persistence-of-an-ecological-paradigm-in-medical-microbiology-nicolas-ramussen-unsw/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building Lecture Theatre 275\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 2\, Room 275\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260330T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260330T183000
DTSTAMP:20260428T112135
CREATED:20260317T032353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260317T034039Z
UID:181-1774891800-1774895400@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Our Microbial Lives: A Manifesto Against Eradication - Victoria Lee (Ohio University)
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: There is a growing recognition in the twenty-first century of our dependence on microbes for virtually every aspect of the way we live\, including how we grow our food\, heal our bodies\, and sustain our environment. Yet\, microbes are different from other targets of conservation\, such as butterflies and elephants: We feel differently about them. This talk traces the nature of microbial charisma as it has changed between efforts toward global eradication of microbial pathogens such as smallpox in the 1970s and the foregrounding of microbes as the life support system of the planet in climate policy after the 2000s. Drawing on research from her book\, The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan (Chicago 2021)\, Victoria Lee explores how humans have engaged with charismatic microbes in brewing and food production\, industrial chemistry\, and drug discovery. She invites us to rethink the modern history of human relationships with microbes in light of calls to foster a greater sense of kinship with nonhuman organisms toward a more sustainable future. In particular\, she challenges us to consider alternatives to approaches dominated by the goal of absolute control or eradication\, in line with the gradual discovery that we live inherently microbial lives. \nBio: Victoria Lee is associate professor of history at Ohio University. Her book\, The Arts of the Microbial World (University of Chicago Press\, 2021; awarded the International Convention of Asia Scholars Book Prize for the Best Book in the Humanities\, 2023)\, examined fermentation science in twentieth-century Japan\, a society where microbes were distinctively known and used as living workers as much as pathogens\, as a direct precedent to the more recent recognition of microbial ecologies as an inseparable part of human society in Europe and America. Her current work considers how twentieth-century microbial history offers insights into twenty-first century questions in light of the growing appreciation of microbes’ role in sustaining organisms at every level of life through the microbiome\, mediating climate change (especially in agriculture)\, and contributing to innovations in green chemistry. She has held fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the Paris Institute for Advanced Study\, and her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books\, NPR’s All Things Considered\, and Mediapart.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/our-microbial-lives-a-manifesto-against-eradication-victoria-lee-ohio-university/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building Lecture Theatre 275\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 2\, Room 275\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260420T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260420T183000
DTSTAMP:20260428T112135
CREATED:20260415T020932Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260415T021007Z
UID:187-1776706200-1776709800@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Pleonexia and the Public/Private Health Systems - Kathryn MacKay (University of Sydney)
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: ‘Pleonexia’ is an ancient Greek term that means taking or wanting to take more than is one’s due\, or avoiding or wanting to avoid contributing what one justly owes. It is often translated as ‘greed\,’ though it is more complex than an idea of greed like uncontrolled appetites\, gluttony\, or avarice. It is also concerned with goods beyond those that are material in nature\, and includes honour\, respect\, and other non-material goods. Importantly\, pleonexia is connected to justice and not just to appetite. It demands to know\, what are you rightly owed\, or what do you rightly owe in turn? \nIn this paper\, I use the idea of pleonexia to interrogate the common practice in Australia whereby physicians and specialists trained in the public healthcare system exit the public system immediately upon completing their training\, for an exclusively private healthcare practice. All doctors are trained in the public system\, and learn from doctors who have chosen to have all or part of their practice in the public side. However\, many doctors choose to exit the public system entirely once their training is completed\, removing their skills from the system and closing off access to both other trainees and the patients who would benefit from their practice. I argue that this is a case of pleonexia but not simply in the positive side of wanting more money or status (though these may be involved). Here\, I will focus on the other side of pleonexia involved in this case\, of not contributing what one justly owes\, and leaving the system worse off as a result. \nBio: Kathryn MacKay is a Senior Lecturer and Program Director of the Master of Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics. She has a BA in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario (Canada)\, an MA in philosophy from McGill University (Canada)\, and a PhD in bioethics from the University of Birmingham (UK). Kathryn’s research brings a feminist theoretical lens to the field of bioethics\, and especially public health ethics. Her work involves examining issues of human flourishing at the intersection of moral theory\, feminist theory\, and political philosophy. She has recently published a book on institutional virtue for public health\, entitled Public Health Virtue Ethics: Institutions\, Structures\, and Political Virtue for the Good Society (Routledge\, 2025).
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/pleonexia-and-the-public-private-health-systems-kathryn-mackay-sydney-university/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building Lecture Theatre 275\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 2\, Room 275\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260504T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260504T183000
DTSTAMP:20260428T112135
CREATED:20260422T070948Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260422T071115Z
UID:192-1777915800-1777919400@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:PTSD in Australia from DSM-III to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide (2021-2024) - Effie Karageorges (The University of Newcastle)
DESCRIPTION:Effie Karageorgos\nAbstract: In 1980\, the American Psychiatric Association published the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III)\, which introduced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)\, a new psychiatric category applicable to both civilian and veteran trauma. PTSD differed from previous DSM classifications such as ‘gross stress reaction’ in DSM-I of 1952 and ‘transient situational disturbance’ in 1968’s DSM-II by its insistence that such trauma was not related to personality\, but rather ‘normal’ responses to a stressful event. Although this definition harked back to Freudian conceptualisations of ‘psychic trauma’\, it was bound by a set of guidelines in line with the neo-Kraepelinian approach of DSM-III. For the military veteran\, this new definition was revolutionary\, removing – officially\, at least – the suggestion common during the First and Second World Wars that traumatic symptoms were caused by faults in individual or hereditary makeup. In Australia\, the Department of Veterans Affairs began recognising PTSD as a pensionable condition from the early 1980s\, but it was not until the 1990s that Australian veterans mounted a collective approach to advocating for the recognition and pensioning of veteran trauma\, predominantly through the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia (VVAA).  Since this period\, advocacy by the VVAA and other organisations has promoted the biomedical model of veteran trauma in alignment with the DSM\, ensuring that veterans retain their respectability as ex-soldiers\, while insisting on life-centred treatment options reflecting a biopsychosocial model. This paper focuses on the Australian example\, where the foregrounding of military histories within national identity has led to a specific framing of the masculine soldier ‘hero’ that allows little room for men ‘weakened’ by trauma. Despite tireless advocacy by veteran organisations from the 1980s\, the recent Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide tells us that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) remains attached to this framing and is yet to embrace the necessarily multifaced approach to ensure quality of life for traumatised military personnel. \nBio: Effie Karageorgos is a historian whose work focuses on conflict\, violence\, protest\, gender and psychiatry. She is Deputy Co-Director of the UON Centre for Society\, Health and Care Research\, co-editor of Health and History journal and co-investigator on the ARC project ‘Life outside institutions: histories of mental health aftercare 1900 – 1960’ led by Catharine Coleborne. With Natalie Hendry (University of Melbourne)\, she coordinates the Social Production of Mental Health seminar series\, which has formed the basis of their recent edited book Critical Mental Health in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Social and Historical Perspectives (Palgrave\, 2025). Her latest book Quiet Protest: A New History of Activism in the Vietnam War is published by UNSW Press in April 2026.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/ptsd-in-australia-from-dsm-iii-to-the-royal-commission-into-defence-and-veteran-suicide-2021-2024-effie-karageorges-the-university-of-newcastle/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building Lecture Theatre 275\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 2\, Room 275\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
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