Professor Christine Parker and Dr Simon Kerr
Professor Christine Parker (Melbourne Law School) has written, researched and consulted widely on how and why business comply with legal, social and environmental responsibilities, what difference regulatory enforcement makes and how businesses can work with lawyers and compliance professionals to build internal corporate social responsibility systems that work. She has helped her partner, Dr Simon Kerr, develop and show a live multi-media eco-music performance, Music for a Warming World, on our individual, social and political responses to climate change. Christine teaches legal ethics and is the co-author of the influential legal ethics text, Inside Lawyers Ethics (with Prof Adrian Evans).
Dr Simon Kerr is the musical driving force of the Simon Kerr Perspective, and has had a long history of involvement in the challenges of climate change. He taught environmental policy at Lincoln University in New Zealand for a number of years, and has a Masters of Applied Science in Environmental Management and a PhD in Political Ecology. He also has extensive experience the management of research at The University of Melbourne (Faculties of Land and Environment and Science). He is a communicator, able to translate the science and politics of climate change into music. Much of his songwriting over the years has addressed the challenges of living sustainably and well on a crowded planet.
present
Dangerous Climate Change – A Musical Response and an Inquiry into Academic-Artistic Co-production of Social Change
Is there more to academic communication and policy impact than scholarly journal articles, books, opinion pieces and reports? Is it possible for arts and academia to work together to address the biggest challenges of our time? In the last twelve months Christine Parker (as manager and intellectual) and Simon Kerr (as musician, artist and activist) have worked together to plan, market and deliver a musical multimedia show addressing climate change. Their show uses stunning images, superb original music and captivating narrative to speak honestly about the science, provide hope for the future, and inspire new and positive ways to think and feel about the climate challenge. In this musical seminar, they will demonstrate the potential for collaboration and co-production between the arts and academia for translating academic research into social and policy change. The presentation will feature Simon Kerr on guitars and vocals performing excerpts from their show, Music for A Warming World together with a stunning visual display and reflection about the role of music and art in communicating science, engaging emotionally with the challenge of issues like climate change, prompting discursive change that can support legal and political and social change, and building community around new social imaginaries.
