Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Western Branch Meeting 2023-2 of the Royal Society of NSW — 15 June 2023
"A new history of Australian political thought"
Professor Wayne Hudson FAHA
Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture
Charles Sturt University, Canberra
https://royalsoc.org.au/blog/western-nsw-branch-meeting-2023-2
This lecture was a joint presentation of Charles Sturt University, as part of its Provocations Public Lecture Series, and the Western NSW Branch of the Royal Society of NSW
Timing Marks:
00:00:00 Introduction to the Speaker: Professor Mark Evans FRSN, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Charles Sturt University
00:06:34 Presentation: Professor Wayne Hudson FAHA
00:26:29 Audience Q&A: moderated by Professor Mark Evans
01:03:03 Meeting Close
Summary: Communication is a human right for everyone – including children. Being an effective communicator is essential for children’s belonging, being, and becoming – and their ability to thrive. The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes our right to freedom of opinion and expression and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas. This right is echoed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, Australian health, education, and disability legislation and policies rarely mention children’s communication.
This presentation will draw on extensive large-scale evidence regarding Australian children’s communicative competence and capacity. Children’s drawings, personal insights, and data from 10,000 children within the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) will be described and the communicative competence of multilingual and Indigenous children will be celebrated.
Summary: In this lecture, Wayne Hudson will discuss why there is no general history of Australian political thought and the research strategies which might enable such a history to be written. Australians have underestimated the range of political ideas that came to Australia, often misunderstood how these ideas were interpreted here, and been slow to grasp the originality of Australian political thought. Wayne is currently writing a book designed to remedy this.
Professor Wayne Hudson is an Adjunct Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Canberra at Charles Sturt University. He is an intellectual historian and a critical realist social philosopher who works across the areas of history, politics, philosophy, and religion, and has written or edited over 23 books. His latest book is Beyond Religion and the Secular: Creative Spiritual Movements and their relevance to Political, Social and Cultural Reform (Bloomsbury 2023). Wayne is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in recognition of his work in Australian religious thought, the role of English Deism in the Enlightenment, and the connections between religion, utopia, and reform.
Western Branch Meeting 2023-2 of the Royal Society of NSW — 15 June 2023
"A new history of Australian political thought"
Professor Wayne Hudson FAHA
Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture
Charles Sturt University, Canberra
https://royalsoc.org.au/blog/western-nsw-branch-meeting-2023-2
This lecture was a joint presentation of Charles Sturt University, as part of its Provocations Public Lecture Series, and the Western NSW Branch of the Royal Society of NSW
Timing Marks:
00:00:00 Introduction to the Speaker: Professor Mark Evans FRSN, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Charles Sturt University
00:06:34 Presentation: Professor Wayne Hudson FAHA
00:26:29 Audience Q&A: moderated by Professor Mark Evans
01:03:03 Meeting Close
Summary: Communication is a human right for everyone – including children. Being an effective communicator is essential for children’s belonging, being, and becoming – and their ability to thrive. The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes our right to freedom of opinion and expression and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas. This right is echoed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, Australian health, education, and disability legislation and policies rarely mention children’s communication.
This presentation will draw on extensive large-scale evidence regarding Australian children’s communicative competence and capacity. Children’s drawings, personal insights, and data from 10,000 children within the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) will be described and the communicative competence of multilingual and Indigenous children will be celebrated.
Summary: In this lecture, Wayne Hudson will discuss why there is no general history of Australian political thought and the research strategies which might enable such a history to be written. Australians have underestimated the range of political ideas that came to Australia, often misunderstood how these ideas were interpreted here, and been slow to grasp the originality of Australian political thought. Wayne is currently writing a book designed to remedy this.
Professor Wayne Hudson is an Adjunct Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Canberra at Charles Sturt University. He is an intellectual historian and a critical realist social philosopher who works across the areas of history, politics, philosophy, and religion, and has written or edited over 23 books. His latest book is Beyond Religion and the Secular: Creative Spiritual Movements and their relevance to Political, Social and Cultural Reform (Bloomsbury 2023). Wayne is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in recognition of his work in Australian religious thought, the role of English Deism in the Enlightenment, and the connections between religion, utopia, and reform.
