Raising the Bar Perth
Tuesday 27 October
Perth
- In-person
Event details
Location
- Perth
- Western Australia
Date and time
- Please refer to each event for specific times.
Event type
- In-person
Audience
- Community
- Representatives from Government, Business, Industry and NGOs
- Postgraduate (considering higher degrees by research)
Registration
- Event details below
10 TALKS. 5 BARS. 1 NIGHT.
Get ready for a night of big ideas on tap as ten researchers from UWA transform five bars in Perth’s CBD into learning spaces for this year’s Raising the Bar event on Tuesday 27 October.
Join our researchers as they host free talks to share ideas, discoveries and research shaping our world.
This is an 18+ event and ID may be required
About Raising the Bar
Established in New York City, Raising the Bar is an internationally recognised event series that turns pubs and bars into dynamic learning environments. The event combines education with elements of pop culture to create a distinctive and engaging format.
What to expect
Our ten inspiring academics will deliver thought-provoking talks across five different bars throughout the evening. Each venue will host two talks, giving you the chance to explore a variety of topics in a relaxed social setting.
See an overview of the speakers, topics and venues below.
| Speaker | Topic | Venue | Time | Register |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Associate Professor Kate Hammer | Unpacking the antibacterial activity of honey | The Aviary | 5.30pm | RSVP |
| Winthrop Professor Daniel Green | Do blockbuster weight loss drugs ‘cure’ obesity by inducing frailty? | The Aviary | 7.00pm | RSVP |
| Associate Professor Abbie Rogers | Tumultuous tides faced by WA’s coast: should we harden up or go with the flow? | The Shoe | 5.30pm | RSVP |
| Dr Wesley Moss | Technology helping to feed the world | The Shoe | 7.00pm | RSVP |
| Dr Kristin Barry | When perception goes wrong: how brain plasticity shapes our reality | Lil’s Hideout | 5.30pm | RSVP |
| Professor Katie Attwell | When governments sabotage vaccination: an analysis of the United States | Lil’s Hideout | 7.00pm | RSVP |
| Professor Hilde Tubex | Let's raise the bar on the use of prisons | Pirate Life | 5.30pm | RSVP |
| Dr Craig Cumming | The system is the symptom: how can we can we manage mental health better? | Pirate Life | 7.00pm | RSVP |
| Associate Professor Ronnie Das | This talk contains deepfakes – your life may depend on whether you can tell | Universal Bar | 5.30pm | RSVP |
| Associate Professor Paul Maginn | Geographies of pornography: online porn viewing trends Down Under | Universal Bar | 7.00pm | RSVP |
Speakers, topics and venues
- Venue: The Aviary
-
Unpacking the antibacterial activity of honey
Honey is an ancient medicine still used in healthcare today. We know some of the ways honey can kill bacteria, but there is much more still to be learned. For example – is manuka honey really better than other honeys? And is our very own WA Jarrah honey as magical as some say? In this talk we’ll take a deep dive into how honey kills bacteria, and why honeys from different plants have different levels of activity.
Bio
Kate Hammer is an Associate Professor in Microbiology and Immunology within The University of Western Australia’s School of Biomedical Sciences. Her research focuses on the antimicrobial activity of natural and novel products such as tea tree oil and honey. Her work aims to expand our understanding of alternative therapies for infectious diseases and to support the development of evidence-based medicinal applications of natural products.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 5:30pm @The Aviary, 140 William St, Perth
Do blockbuster weight loss drugs ‘cure’ obesity by inducing frailty?
Obesity is a gateway to multiple chronic diseases which limit human HealthSpan. There has never been a class of drugs that induces the rapid and profound decreases in body weight and fat as today’s blockbuster ‘Ozempic/Mounjaro’ or ‘incretin’ therapies – but what impact do they have on muscle and other tissues? This talk will share world-first results from the UWA Tirzepatide and Resistance Exercise (T-REX) study of changes in body composition, muscle mass, strength, and heart and artery health in humans.
Bio
Danny Green, a Winthrop Professor at The University of Western Australia and Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, is a cardiovascular exercise physiologist specialising in chronic disease prevention. Through collaborations between science, engineering and medicine, his team focuses on early disease detection to optimise and personalise disease prevention. He directs the UWA HealthSpan Institute, a flagship initiative delivering services to the WA community that enhance their health and well-being, by integrating evidence-based research, practitioner and researcher training, and student-led preventative health services.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 7pm @The Aviary, 140 William St, Perth
- Venue: The Shoe
-
Tumultuous tides faced by WA’s coast: should we harden up or go with the flow?
WA’s coastal environments have always been dynamic but rising sea levels and growing storm impacts are accelerating change and creating difficult and expensive challenges – especially for coastal communities. Strategies include protective measures that ‘harden’ the coastline, nature-based approaches that improve coastal system resilience, or simply retreating from our coast. We will discuss the pros and cons of different solutions, recognising the diversity of coastal communities and others who depend on our coasts, along with pathways to more sustainable coastal futures.
Bio
Abbie Rogers is Director of the UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy and an Associate Professor and WA Premier’s Mid-Career Fellow within UWA’s School of Agriculture & Environment and Oceans Institute. Her research focuses on coastal management, natural hazards and environmental restoration. As an environmental economist, she works across ocean and land-based environments, developing economic tools to support evidence-based policy, with a focus on inclusion of community values and preferences in decision making.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 5.30pm @The Shoe, 376 Wellington St, Perth
Technology helping to feed the world
WA’s coastal environments have always been dynamic but rising sea levels and growing storm impacts are accelerating change and creating difficult and expensive challenges – especially for coastal communities. Strategies include protective measures that ‘harden’ the coastline, nature-based approaches that improve coastal system resilience, or simply retreating from our coast. We will discuss the pros and cons of different solutions, recognising the diversity of coastal communities and others who depend on our coasts, along with pathways to more sustainable coastal futures.
Bio
Wesley Moss is a lecturer across UWA’s School of Agriculture and Environment and School of Engineering. As an agricultural engineer, he builds technology that makes farming more sustainable – from machinery design and AI to smarter ways of managing crops and weeds. He is also the Ag Tech Theme Lead at UWA's Centre for Engineering Innovation. Wesley is passionate about showing agriculture is anything but low-tech, and works with primary, secondary and tertiary students to promote all things Ag Tech.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 7pm @The Shoe, 376 Wellington St, Perth
- Venue: Lil's Hideout
-
When perception goes wrong: how brain plasticity shapes our reality
When hearing is damaged, the brain tries to compensate by ‘filling in’ missing sound information, creating the phantom ringing or buzzing of tinnitus. The same plasticity that enables this compensation can also reinforce it over time, allowing tinnitus to persist. But tinnitus is just one example of a much broader phenomenon – phantom perceptions occur across all our senses. This talk will explore how the brain changes itself through plasticity, and how this influences our conscious experience of reality.
Bio
Dr Kristin Barry is a neuroscientist and lecturer in Physiology at The University of Western Australia. She studies how the brain makes sense of sound, with a particular interest in hearing loss and tinnitus. Her research focuses on why some people develop tinnitus after hearing loss while others do not, with the goal of finding new ways to treat tinnitus. Passionate about making science accessible, Kristin is an award-winning educator who enjoys sharing everything she's learned about the brain.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 5.30pm @Lil’s Hideout, 437 Murray St, Perth
When governments sabotage vaccination: an analysis of the United States
This talk explores how governments institute vaccination uptake and walks through what is presently occurring in the United States with the MAGA turn away from immunisation. What do these experiences mean for Australia, and how do we prepare for their impact here?
Bio
Professor Katie Attwell is a researcher at The University of Western Australia specialising in public health and health policy, with a focus on vaccination, vaccine hesitancy and immunisation governance. Her work examines the social, political and behavioural factors that influence vaccination uptake, including the design and effects of public policy, communication strategies and community attitudes. Her research has helped governments, health professionals and communities better understand and respond to challenges in vaccination coverage nationally and internationally.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 7pm @Lil’s Hideout, 437 Murray St, Perth
- Venue: Pirate Life
-
Let's raise the bar on the use of prisons
WA’s prison population is high compared with other Australian jurisdictions, and growing. Are we more criminal than the rest of Australia? Unlikely, so why are our rates so high? Given most people in prison have been there before, it doesn’t seem a very effective way of dealing with crime – and it’s expensive. This talk challenges us to raise the bar on the use of prisons, learn from alternatives that seem to work, and spend taxpayers' money in a better way.
Bio
Hilde Tubex is Professor of Criminology at the Law School of The University of Western Australia. Originally from Belgium, where she advised the Council of Europe and Belgian Minister of Justice on penal policy, she migrated to Australia in 2007. She initially worked for the WA Department of Corrective Services before joining UWA in 2011. Her research focuses on comparative criminology and penal policy, overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples within the criminal justice system, criminalised women, life sentenced people and parole.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 5.30pm @Pirate Life, 440 Murray St, Perth
The system is the symptom: how can we can we manage mental health better?
Western Australia’s mental health system is currently at historically low capacity, leaving many people to fall through the cracks. People in this situation are often described as having ‘complex needs’ that are difficult to meet – but is that fair? In this talk, we'll challenge that idea and discuss the possibility that when systems are focused on the humans they are meant to be helping, ‘complex needs’ may become a lot simpler to manage.
Bio
Dr Craig Cumming is a Research Fellow in the School of Population and Global Health at The University of Western Australia. His research aims to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for marginalised populations by providing evidence to inform policy and practice across multiple sectors. Craig uses a range of data to examine factors associated with poor mental health, self-harm, and drug-related harms, with a focus on early intervention approaches.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 5.30pm @Pirate Life, 440 Murray St, Perth
- Venue: Universal Bar
-
This talk contains deepfakes – your life may depend on whether you can tell
Welcome to a world where seeing is no longer believing! New AI technology can create videos of anyone saying or doing anything – even experts struggle to tell fake from real. As deepfakes spread, your ability to spot them will become one of the most valuable skills in our digital world. I’ll show you how the technology works, share examples that will make you question everything you watch online, and give you practical ways to protect yourself and your organisation.
Bio
Ronnie Das is an Associate Professor in AI, Data Science and Digital Transformation at The University of Western Australia Business School. His research explores how artificial intelligence and big data can help organisations work more efficiently, make better decisions, and create stronger outcomes for communities. He looks at how digital technologies can support business processes, government policy, and social wellbeing. His work brings together ideas and partners from areas including consumer research, health, transport, and urban systems.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 5.30pm @Universal Bar, 221 William St, Perth
Geographies of pornography: online porn viewing trends Down Under
Every year major online adult entertainment sites record billions of visits, with Australia often ranked among the ‘top 20’ countries for porn viewing. Despite its popularity, porn remains (y)our ‘dirty little secret’ – a socially taboo topic and a highly stigmatised and stereotyped form of entertainment and labour. In this talk we’ll take a whirlwind tour of global and Australian trends in online porn consumption and reveal the porn preferences of Australians at national, state and local levels.
Bio
Paul Maginn is Associate Professor in Urban Planning at The University of Western Australia and Director of the UWA Public Policy Institute. His research focuses on the intersections of people, place, policy and politics in (sub)urban contexts. He is author/editor of 11 books including: Peripheral Centralities: Instances of Anticipatory Urbanism; Peripheral Centralities: The Lost and Past Urbanity of the Suburbs; Suburbia in the 21st Century: From Dreamscape to Nightmare?; and (Sub)Urban Sexscapes: Geographies and Regulation of the Sex Industry.
Event
Tuesday 27 October, 7pm @Universal Bar, 221 William St, Perth
