Next Week In Focus

The University of Auckland | 1

Weekly newsletter for University staff | 16 March 2015

Diary

Tuesday 17 March Documentary Film and Social Change seminar series Runs until 27 March 2015. 4pm, Owen G Glen Building (Business School), Case room 4. The hugely popular Chilean film No! suggested the potential of audiovisual media to mediate social change by synthesising the images, ideas, and emotions of social movements during major social transitions. Three seminars based on the work of Chilean filmmaker Ignacio Agüero will provide a platform for discussion about the potential of documentary film and other media in accompanying social change in Aotearoa New Zealand and in Latin America. The first President of the Chilean Documentary Association (founded 2000), Ignacio Agüero has contributed to the democratisation of Chile through his work as co-director of TV messages for the “NO Campaign” against the Pinochet dictatorship, his acclaimed documentary films, and his leadership in enabling filmmakers to participate in making Chilean documentary filmmaking sustainable as part of the international movement of independent, alternative and community media that challenge the overwhelming power of commercial media. Three of his films will be screened a week in advance of the seminar series, to provide a platform for discussion in three seminars on the potential for documentary and other media to mediate social transformation. To find out more please visit http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/events/2015/05/documentary-film-and-social-change--the-films-of-ignacio-agueero.html Faculty of Education Distinguished Visitor Public Lecture Anthony S. Bryk, ninth president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: Learning to improve. 4.30-6pm, Lecture Theatre J1, Gate2, 74 Epsom Ave. As a field, education has largely failed to learn from experience. Time after time, promising education reforms fall short of their goals and are abandoned as other promising ideas take their place. In this talk, Anthony

Bryk will argue for a new approach. Rather than “implementing fast and learning slow,” educators should adopt a more rigorous approach to improvement that allows the field to “learn fast to implement well.” Using ideas borrowed from improvement science, Bryk will show how a process of disciplined inquiry can be combined with the use of networks to identify, adapt and successfully scale up promising interventions in education. Organised around six core principles, “networked improvement communities” can bring together researchers and practitioners to accelerate learning in key areas of education. Examples include efforts to address the high rate of failure among students in community college remedial math courses and strategies for improving feedback to novice teachers. The talk will offer a new paradigm for research and development in education that promises to be a powerful driver of improvement for the nation’s schools and colleges. Register here: bryklecture.eventbrite.co.nz Exhibition opening 4 Futures. 5.30pm, George Fraser Gallery, 25a Princes Street, Auckland. An exhibition showcasing four award-winning 2014 Masters of Architecture (Professional) thesis projects that presents their visions of the future. From an imagined district at Rangitaiki Plain, to the regeneration of Royal Oak, an exploration of the eccentric Three Kings and an antidote for authoritarian infrastructure through the celebration of ludic movement with ‘Rotovegas’, this exhibition celebrates the work of Raimana Jones, Zee Shake Lee, Natalee Yee Wei Tan and Norman Wei. In addition, Stephenson & Turner will be announcing the winner of their prestigious award from one of the works presented in the 4 Futures exhibition. Exhibition runs until 28 March. The George Fraser Gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday only, 11am - 4pm. Clubs Movie Mash Ups What movie would you get if you mashed up two of the University of Auckland’s clubs? That’s the question we put to University clubs and students, and the best answers make up the Clubs Movie Mash Up screenings.

Beethoven (1992). 7pm, Maidment Theatre, 8 Alfred Street. Written by John Hughes. Animal Rights Group + Classical Society.Rated G. $8 for UoA students. Telephone bookings and enquiries: (09) 308 2383

Wednesday 18 March Fermata lecture Graham Reid, University of Auckland: How the Beatles killed and created New Zealand popular music.5.30pm, Music Theatre, 6 Symonds Street. Free. Faculty Spotlight: Music journalist, writer and School of Music lecturer Graham Reid considers how New Zealand’s distinctive, vernacular popular music which emerged in the late 50s and early 60s was sublimated with the arrival of the Beatles in 1963-64, as well as how their influence simultaneously created a New Zealand pop music culture for the first time with a global outlook. Creative Thinking Project Public Lecture Professor Bruce Sheridan. 6pm, B15, University of Auckland Library Lecture Theatre. In this free public lecture, brought to you by the Creative Thinking Project and the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Arts, Professor Sheridan will illustrate how the same fundamental human capacities underpin all the work we do in the name of “science” or “art”, with each amplifying aspects the other can benefit from. As technologies outstrip the human capacity for information storage and computation, the essential contributions from future graduates will be rooted in dynamic creativity. Professor Sheridan is Chair of Cinema Art + Science at Colombia College, Chicago - the largest film school in the United States. He is an alumnus of the University of Auckland, where he is currently a PhD candidate in Philosophy. His thesis research focuses on imagination and its role in the development of creativity in the arts and sciences.Queries to creativethinking@auckland.ac.nz This lecture is free of charge.

The University of Auckland | 2

Communique Lecture 2015 Gregor Hoheisel (GRAFT): Distinct ambiguity. 6.30pm, Engineering Lecture Theatre 439, Building 401, 20 Symonds Street. Gregor Hoheisel will introduce Graft’s work, as discussed in their publication - Distinct Ambiguity, with a special focus on “The Make it Right” Project in New Orleans and “The Solar Kiosk”, both exploring the role of architects beyond design. GRAFT is a firm established in 1998 by Gregor Hoheisel, Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit in Los Angeles, California as a label for architecture, urban planning, design, music and the pursuit of happiness. Taking its name from the English word and botanical terminology, GRAFT embraces the idea that positive properties of two genetically different cultures can be combined in the new hybrid. With the core of its enterprises gravitating around architecture and the built environment, GRAFT has maintained an interest in crossing the boundaries between disciplines and ‘grafting’ the creative potentials and methodologies of different realities. This is reflected in the firm’s expansion into the fields of exhibition and product design, art installations, academic projects and events as well as in the variety of project locations.

Clubs Movie Mash Ups What movie would you get if you mashed up two of the University of Auckland’s clubs? That’s the question we put to University clubs and students, and the best answers make up the Clubs Movie Mash Up screenings. The Mighty Ducks (1992). Starring Emilio Estevez and Joshua Jackson. Hockey Club + Snowsports Club. Rated PG. $8 for UoA students. Telephone bookings and enquiries: (09) 308 2383

Thursday 19 March Master of Teaching – Information Evening Event 6pm, A Block, Room A201, Epsom Campus, Gate 3, 74 Epsom Avenue Auckland. The Master of Teaching is a brand new masters qualification designed for high achieving graduates who want to pursue a rewarding career in primary or secondary teaching. If you have a B-average or higher in your bachelors degree and an interest in working with students in low socio-economic communities, you can broaden your career options with this uniquely designed, intensive one-year masters programme specialising in primary or secondary teaching. Attend this information session and you will: Discover how, as a primary or secondary school teacher, you can harness your degree, talent and knowledge to inspire the young minds of the future. Learn about the subject areas in demand in New Zealand secondary schools and

the degree requirements for the Master of Teaching Secondary. Find out about new learning hubs, established in partnership with Auckland primary and secondary schools and how you will learn in schools, with teachers. Hear from two principals of our partner schools about how their schools work, and what it is like to teach in their schools. Talk with current students in the Master of Teaching Primary and ask questions about what it is like to study a Master of Teaching. Receive application support from experienced Student Advisers. Find out more about the Master of Teaching Primary and Secondary programmes www.education.auckland.ac.nz/mteachRSVP: http://master-of-teaching2015.eventbrite.co.nz Clubs Movie Mash Ups What movie would you get if you mashed up two of the University of Auckland’s clubs? That’s the question we put to University clubs and students, and the best answers make up the Clubs Movie Mash Up screenings. Legally Blonde (2001). Starring Reese Witherspoon, Juke Wilson, Selma Blair and Jennifer Coolidge. Auckland University Law Students Society + Campus Feminist Collective. Rated PG - sexual references. $8 for UoA students. Telephone bookings and enquiries: (09) 308 2383. Quiz Night Enjoy a night of trivia and fun. Click to register https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/quiz-night-2015-tickets-15265878654

Friday 20 March Movie at the Maidment Flashdance. 7pm, Maidment Theatre, 8 Alfred Street. The visual and musical box office smash that became a cultural sensation, Flashdance is the exhilarating story of Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals), a fiercely determined and beautiful 18 year old woman who works during the day as a welder and at night as an exotic dancer. The film sparkles with the music of the 80s including the #1 hit song sung by Irene Cara Flashdance… What A Feeling and Maniac by Michael Sembello. We follow Alex’s struggle to gain independence, find love, and realise her dream – to dance at the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance. This screening of Flashdance is timed to coincide with Footnote Dance’s season of Bbeals, a contemporary dance piece exploring an arc starting from Jennifer Beal’s character in Flashdance, later encompassing biblical themes from the Tower of Babel to the Great Flood. If you have tickets to Bbeals, you can come and see Flashdance for just $8! (standard price $10). Call our box office to book at this price.

Rated M – offensive language. Cost: $8 for UoA students. Telephone bookings and enquiries: (09) 308 2383

Saturday 21 March Learn To Surf Hit the iconic Piha Beach with Great Outdoors Series. Visit www.auckland.ac.nz/greatoutdoors