UNSW Centre for Ideas

Anne Summers’s Damned Whores and God’s Police was first published 50 years ago – a time when sexual harassment, domestic violence and date rape were unnamed and often ignored experiences for women in Australia. It would be another nine years before the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. Hear Anne as the b

Economics Professor at UNSW Sydney Richard Holden (Money in the Twenty First Century) and Parliamentarian Andrew Leigh (The Shortest History of Economics) unpack economics as a global force that impacts wars, technological innovation and social change.  In our contemporary world, what are the causes and consequences of

Miles Franklin is a literary legend now, but her story, and those of women like her, were nearly lost to the passage of time.  Kerrie Davies unwinds the mysteries of Miles Franklin’s lost years in Miles Franklin Undercover: The little-known years when she created her own brilliant career, constructing a real-life seque

The climate crisis is vast, complex and often feels both imminent and frustratingly out of our control. With global systems slow to change and the scale of the challenge immense, it’s easy to wonder if individual action could ever be enough. On World Environment Day, Climate Warriors brought together four transformativ

Artificial intelligence’s collision with human creativity is one of the most important stories of our time.  With the accelerating impact of AI, so much of what we understand about being human is being re-written.   Acclaimed writer Jeanette Winterson (12 Bytes: How artificial intelligence will change the way we live a

Acclaimed Indonesian author Norman Erikson Pasaribu and award-winning Australian writer Dylin Hardcastle explore the joy, tenderness and triumphs of queer storytelling.   Norman, best known for Happy Stories, Mostly, and their latest book My Dream Job, crafts tender yet sharp narratives about identity, faith and belong