Next Week In Focus The University of Auckland | 1 Weekly newsletter for University staff | 28 September 2015 Diary Monday 28 September COMPASS Research Centre seminar Professor Cindy Kiro, Associate Professor Anne Hynds, Dr Earl Irving, Morgan Rangi and Victoria Cockle: Navigating the starpath: Student achievement and equity in secondary schools in Tamaki and Tai Tokerau. 4-5pm, Fale Pasifika Complex, Room 104, Building 273. Starpath has developed evidence-based strategies to transform patterns of educational underachievement for senior secondary students in Years 11, 12 and 13 in low socioeconomic high schools. Starpath has partnered with 39 low decile schools in Auckland and Northland. Achievement in NCEA Levels 1, 2, 3 and University Entrance showed remarkable improvements. There were also significant gains in school practices including expectations of achievement; using data to support achievement; informed student goal setting; tracking of student progress; literacy across the curriculum and whānau/ family-school partnerships. Starpath has promoted a sense of responsibility amongst senior students for their own learning and achievement. Starpath has made a positive difference to the relationship between teachers, school leaders and parents. In this presentation we will review the evidence of this approach and share our findings from the matched schools analysis and development of a multi- level analysis to understand what impact, if any, Starpath has had on our partner schools. All welcome. Queries to [email protected] Tuesday 29 September New Zealand Asia Institute seminar Dr Ludger Kühnhardt: Asia-Pacific or Eurasia: What kind of priorities for the European Union and China? 4-5.30pm, Case Room 3, Level 0, Owen G Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland. Refugee crisis, Euro-crisis, Euro-sceptical populism: The European Union is in the media these days with a complex set of internal issues, all pointing at complicated processes of adjustment in the second biggest economy in the world. While the EU is trying to get its act together, the shift of the global pivot to Asia, mainly to China, raises the question about the future role and relevance of Asia, China in particular, for Europe – and vice versa. The speaker will discuss the global role of Europe. Against the backdrop of current developments in China, especially the Chinese one belt- one road-strategy, he will look at the wider spectrum of Asia-Pacific developments and the emergence of the Eurasian perspective. Dr Ludger Kühnhardt is the Director of ZEI and Professor of Political Science at the University of Bonn. Wednesday 30 September Sociology seminar Dr Carisa Showden: US juvenile anti-sex trafficking policy and narratives of innocence: an intersectional intervention. 4-5pm, Federation of Graduate Women’s Suite, Old Government House. The dominant narrative about sex-trafficked youth in North America presents a young female victim who has been coerced into prostitution by a dangerous older man who acts as either a pimp, a john, or both. This story has circulated widely to promote a powerfully gendered, normative understanding of young people who trade sex; consequently, it has served as the basis for most US anti-sex- trafficking policy. However, a growing chorus of questions and data challenge this simple, gendered “innocent girl/predatory man” narrative. In my presentation, I will consider the evidence underlying this challenge, and propose an alternate narrative informed by intersectionality theory. I conclude by highlighting the value of this intersectional approach for researchers and policy-makers interested in capturing this more complex picture of North American youth who sell sex. Dr Carisa Showden is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Director of the Board of Gender Studies at the University of Auckland. Sounds Celestial 8-9.15pm, Auckland Town Hall, 303 Queen Street. Free. All welcome. The School of Music in conjunction with the Auckland Philharmonia’s INSPIRE programme presents an evening of heavenly classical music.The large-scale concert stars acclaimed conductor Uwe Grodd, sopranos Patricia Wright and Natasha Wilson, and the University of Auckland’s Symphony Orchestra, Massed Choir and Chamber Choir. Altogether this concert will feature some 220 musicians on stage in the sumptuous acoustics of the Auckland Town Hall. Programme: Hamilton, Dance-Song to the Creator: This work was commissioned for the International Summer School in Choral Conducting in 1993. It is scored for two semi-choruses (SSA and SATB) with a large mixed-voice choir. The accompaniment is for piano duet and percussion. Two texts from different spiritual traditions (the Latin ‘Te Deum’ and 15th century India) offer complementary hymns of praise to both the creator and to the power of music. Villa-Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5: Scored for soprano and orchestra of cellos (1938/45), Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 is Villa-Lobos’s best- known work - sung in performance by Natasha Wilson. Mahler, Symphony No.4: The work is paired with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, a work of transcendent beauty, that includes the song Das himmlische Leben - a child’s vision of heaven - sung in this performance by Patricia Wright, one of New Zealand’s finest sopranos. Featuring: University Symphony Orchestra Massed Choir University Chamber Choir Natasha Wilson, soprano Patricia Wright, soprano Uwe Grodd, conductor. Queries to [email protected] Thursday 1 October Anthropology Round-table discussion Current climate and conundrums of academic publishing as viewed by journal editors. 4-5.30pm, Anthropology Tea Room, Human Sciences Building. Hosted by Judith Huntsman. Panel members will voice short statements designed to stimulate discussion and debate both within the panel and among the audience. Open access and its effect on the funding of non-commercial journals; How academic journals are weighted and what these weightings mean; Assessments of quality and measures of quantity;