Upcoming events
Expand your mind with the Institute of Advanced Studies.
Each year the Institute hosts events by distinguished visiting and local scholars, artists, writers and public intellectuals. These events contribute to our goal of sharing research, new ideas and encouraging discussion and debate within the broader community.
Public Lectures
March
Infrastructure and International Relations
Public Talk by Jutta Bakonyi, Professor in Development and Conflict, School of Government and International Affairs, University of Durham
- Chair: Dr Ari Jerrems, UWA School of Social Sciences
- Discussant: Associate Professor Ethan Blue, UWA School of Humanities
Infrastructures enable mobilities and shape how we engage with and experience the world. They are insignia of modernity and its promise of unending progress. Infrastructures, however, are also central means of accumulating power and of world ordering. Drawing on her research on maritime infrastructures in the Red Sea region, Jutta Bakonyi will outline how infrastructures are used to monopolize access and passage and, as they regulate and direct movement, also foster relations of power.
TUESDAY 3rd MARCH 2026, 1-2.30pm, THE CIRCLE, REID LIBRARY, UWA
Postgraduate Masterclasses
The Politics of Failed Infrastructure
A Masterclass with Jutta Bakonyi, Professor in Development and Conflict, School of Government and International Affairs, University of Durham.
Wednesday 4th March, 1-3pm, The Circle, Reid Library
Event Queries: [email protected]
Infrastructures are inherently vulnerable. Technical malfunctions, power outages, accidents, natural disasters, and blockades regularly cause disruptions to the mobility of people, animals, and goods. Some of these interruptions are barely visible, while others affect only a few people in specific locations. Still others have wide-ranging effects, including in places far from the site of the breakdown. This collaborative masterclass aims to explore the social, political, economic and ecological dimensions of infrastructural failure building on an emerging interdisciplinary field of scholarship.
The masterclass will involve brief interventions on the theme of ‘The Politics of Failed Infrastructure’ from Professor Bakonyi, Associate Professor Blue and Dr Jerrems as well as broader discussions with attendees.
This Masterclass is presented by the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies in collaboration with the Frontier Technologies and Society Lab and the UWA Oceans Institute.
Attendees should read set texts before the event:
- Albert, Michael (2025) ‘Reframing ‘Collapse’ Futures: Climate Breakdown, Resistance, and Pluriversal Transitions Beyond the Capitalist World-System’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 54(1): 3-24.
- Gambino, Evelina (2024) ‘Domesticating logistical futures: A grounded account of failure’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 43(1): 181-204.
- Graham, Stephen (2010) ‘Introduction: When Infrastructures Fail’ in Stephen Graham (ed.) Disrupted Cities: When Infrastructure Fails, Routledge, 1-26.
- Schwell, Alexandra (2025) ‘My only friend, the end. Urgency politics and the blackout’, Cities 163: 10602
Past lectures
Many of our events are recorded. See our Past lectures page for more information and links to these recordings.
25th Anniversary Panel
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge - Revisiting Abraham Flexner for the 21st Century
To celebrate 25 years of the Institute of Advanced Studies at UWA, we hosted a panel discussion on the value of enquiry for its own sake. Moderated by Natasha Mitchell of ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas program, this panel discussion revisited the ideas raised by Abraham Flexner in his 1939 Harpers essay, ‘The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge'.
Speakers: Oron Catts, Director, UWA Institute of Advanced Studies, since July 2024; Jessyca Hutchens, Curator, Berndt Museum of Anthropology and Terri-ann White, Director, Upswell & founding Director, UWA Institute of Advanced Studies, 2000-2012.
This discussion was broadcast under the title: 'What are universities for today? The usefulness of "useless" knowledge' on Wed 26 Nov 2025 at 2:00pm Source: ABC Radio National Program Big Ideas.