Fearless Conversations
INVESTIGATOR LECTURE
The 2023 Flinders University Investigator Lecture on the body image crisis is being rescheduled to accommodate an unmissable international opportunity for our keynote speaker, Australian of the Year Taryn Brumfitt.
We apologise for this inconvenience and will advise the new date as soon as possible.
The Investigator Lecture is our flagship annual oration and we’d like to assure you we are committed to hosting this fearless conversation about an issue of great significance, affecting almost all Australians.
Reach out to us at events@flinders.edu.au if you have any questions or concerns.
The Investigator Lecture is an important part of Flinders University’s public education program and our contribution towards the cultural life of South Australia. It is also the showcase piece to our Fearless Conversations series, our thought-provoking and inspiring live panel discussions examining a range of industries to showcase innovation, creativity and to create a fearless future for our state.
Evidence and impact: solving the body image crisis
One of the most insidious crises of our time, ‘body image’ issues affect Australians of all ages. However, the vulnerabilities of our youngest people make them particularly susceptible to the impacts wrought by negative body image portrayals in both mainstream and social media.
The 2023 Investigator Lecture - Evidence and impact: solving the body image crisis dives deep into the history of body image issues, the impact on our youth and others, and the way forward for current and future generations.
The lecture will commence with a special keynote from 2023 Australian of the Year Taryn Brumfitt, Founder of the Body Image Movement, Leader of The Embrace Collective, bestselling author and director of documentaries Embrace and Embrace Kids.
Taryn will then be joined by a panel of experts, facilitated by highly respected journalist Jess Adamson. This intriguing panel discussion brings together Flinders University Associate Professor Ivanka Prichard, Dr Simon Wilksch - Senior Research Fellow and Clinic Director at Advanced Psychology Services and John Mannion - CEO of Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation.
Don’t miss the opportunity to find out more about this complicated, challenging and urgent crisis
Keynote:
Taryn Brumfitt
Body image activist, director, writer and speaker
Taryn Brumfitt is an award-winning filmmaker, bestselling author and internationally sought-after keynote speaker. Recently named Australian of the Year 2023, she is a fiercely passionate advocate for social change and her message has reached more than 200 million people around the world.
Taryn is the founder of the Body Image Movement, director of the inspiring documentaries EMBRACE and EMBRACE KIDS, leader of The Embrace Collective and author of four books. Her global crusade to help people embrace their bodies has seen her recognised by UN Women, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls and the Geena Davis Institute. Taryn has delivered more than 100 keynote addresses, and her talk at Google HQ in Silicon Valley was live-streamed to every Google office in the world.
In 2018, she was recognised in the Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence awards and received the SA Award for Excellence in Women's Leadership from Women and Leadership Australia. She was also crowned EY Entrepreneur of the Year, South Australia, and has been named among GE’s highest-rated speakers.
With a powerful, universal message and unwavering commitment to her cause, Taryn Brumfitt is a true force to be reckoned with.
Panel members include:
Associate Professor
Ivanka Pritchard
Director of the Embrace Impact Lab, Flinders University
Associate Professor Prichard is the Director of the Embrace Impact Lab at Flinders University with a vision to create a world where everyone is healthy and happy in their bodies. She has a background in Psychology and 20 years of research experience in the field of body image across the lifespan.
Her work focuses on identifying factors that influence body image (e.g., different social media trends), and on developing and testing evidence-based resources to promote positive body image, health behaviour and wellbeing.
Dr Simon Wilksh
Senior Research Fellow and Clinic Director at Advanced Psychology Services
Dr Simon Wilksch is a research and clinical psychologist dedicated to reducing the burden of eating disorders and body image concerns. He has developed two leading programs, Media Smart Schools and Media Smart Targeted., with a strong evidence base for reducing numerous eating disorder risk factors and symptoms, and improving other mental health outcomes.
Simon is also a Clinic Director at Advanced Psychology Services, a treatment service for children, adolescents and adults experiencing an eating disorder. The service includes 11 therapists providing treatment to over 450 patients annually, including a dramatic increase in the number of patients in late childhood and early adolescence in recent years.
John Mannion
CEO Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation
John Mannion is the inaugural Chief Executive Office of Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation – Australia’s only foundation dedicated solely to mental health research.
John’s career in mental health has spanned more than 35 years including as a practitioner, in both Mental Health Nursing and Social work as well as leading mental health services across the state and previously holding the Lead Mental Health Commissioner Role for South Australia.
John led the establishment of Breakthrough in 2018 which last year alone funded more than 20 leading research projects across all the state’s universities with a focus upon helping to creating a life free of mental illness through research to inform clinical improvements, enhanced outcomes and community connectivity.
John has a passion for normalising the mental health conversation, delivering mental health literacy programs to help drive meaningful change and continuing to expand his mental health knowledge and understanding.
Facilitator: Jessica Adamson
Journalist and Speaker
Jess Adamson is an award winning journalist, an event host/facilitator and speaker.
In her 24 years at the Seven Network she covered some of the world’s biggest news stories including the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Banda Aceh, the Bali bombings, drug trials of Michelle Leslie and the Bali 9, the Beaconsfield Mine disaster, the Sydney and Beijing Olympic Games and the 2008 Tour de France.
Jess was Seven’s top rating Weekend News Presenter from 2014-2020.
She is a passionate ambassador for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and CanTeen, the Australian organisation for young people living with cancer, as well as a Board Member of the Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation and Sids and Kids SA.
Lecture title: Conflict and Crisis: A global health emergency
Professor David Karoly FAA
Lecture title: Climate Change: Managing the unavoidable, avoiding the unmanageable
Dr Richard Harris SC OAM
Lecture title: Under Pressure
Dr Tia Kansara, Future City sustainability evangelist & entrepreneur
Lecture title: Replenish: A philosophy, a cause and action
Ambassador (ret) Jeffrey L Bleich, CEO, Dentons Diplomatic Solutions
Lecture title: Democracy's new challenge - runaway technology and walk-away government
Sergey Treshcheov, Pilot-Cosmonaut, Flight Engineer; and Professor Alex Akulov,
Head Consultant, from the Yuri Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Centre
Lecture title: How to live in space
Rear Admiral the Honourable Kevin Scarce AC CSC RAN Rtd
Lecture title: Divided we fall: Finding a shared vision for South Australia’s economic transformation
Dr Paul Howard-Jones
Lecture title: What is leisure technology doing to our brains?
Dr Brian Schmidt 2011 Nobel Laureate in Physics
Lecture title: The Accelerating Universe
Premier Mike Rann
Lecture title: Charting a course for change - the politics of progress
Professor Tim Flannery
Lecture title: Digging up the future on climate change
Former Chief Justice of the High Court, the Hon Murray Gleeson AC
Lecture title: Law and Change
James Bradfield Moody, General Manager, International Development, CSIRO
Lecture title: Insurmountable Opportunities: success in a resource-limited world
Donald McDonald AC (Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Board)
Lecture title: A decade of difference: Renewal of the ABC
Neil Mules AO, Flinders graduate and Australian Ambassador to Mexico
Lecture title: Diplomacy in the 21st Century: Responding to New Challenges
Posie Graeme-Evans; Flinders graduate, Head of Drama (Nine Network Australia) and creator McLeod's Daughters
Lecture title: Strictly Entertainment
Lech Walesa, Former President of Poland and Nobel Peace Laureate
Lecture title: The Future of Democracy in the Globalising World
Paul Kells, Founder, Safe Communities Foundation (Canada)
Lecture title: How you can save a life and never know whose it was!/p>
Hannie Rayson; Playwright
Lecture title: Degrees of Separation: the university and the spirit of inquiry
Michael Leunig; Cartoonist, painter
Lecture title: A Spoken Cartoon on the Subject of Human Happiness
Professor Peter Sellars; Director, Adelaide Festival of Arts (2002)
Lecture title: Cultural Activism in the New Century
Veronica Brady; Department of English (The University of Western Australia)
Lecture title: Politics, Passion and Poetry
Professor Ian Lowe; Professor in Science, Technology and Society (Griffith University)
Lecture title: Education for the 21st Century
Emeritus Professor Peter Karmel; Founding Vice-Chancellor of Flinders, and Vice-Chancellor Australian National University
Lecture title: Australia and the Economic Paradigm: Thirty Years of Change
Dr Kevin Wellington; CSIRO
Lecture title: Are We Alone? Is there Intelligent Life out there?
Dr Anne Summers; Writer and columnist
Lecture title: Women, Politics and the Millennium
Dr Robyn Archer; Writer, performer and director
Lecture title: A Personal Journey
Dr Pat O'Shane, Magistrate
Lecture title: Res publica – not vox majestica – This is your Sovereign Speaking
Dr Eric Willmot; Director-General of Education, South Australia
Lecture title: Vision 3 – A Fantastic Journey
Sir Gustav Nossal; Director, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research
Lecture title: Ethical Frontiers of Medical Technology
Donald Horne; Writer and lecturer
Lecture title: Unlocking the Academies – Can it be done?
Peter Garrett; President, Australian Conservation Foundation
Lecture title: Vested Interests: The Politic versus the Altruistic – What Price Unbleached Toilet Paper
Geoffrey Robertson QC; Barrister, author
Lecture title: The Freedom to Investigate
Professor Di Yerbury; Vice-Chancellor, Macquarie University
Lecture title: Higher Education and Beyond: Gender and Choice
Dr Bob Brown; Politician, environmentalist
Lecture title: The Politics of Conservation in the late 1980s and Beyond
Mr Brian Toohey; Editor, National Times
Lecture title: Journalism: Shackles on the Craft in the 1980s
HE Mr A Alohaty; Ambassador to Australia for Saudi Arabia
There was no Investigator Lecture in 1983.
Sir Charles Court; Premier of Western Australia 1972 – 1981
Lecture title: Building a Future for Australia
Bob Hawke; Shadow Federal Minister, Employment and Industrial Relations
Lecture title: Australia Ahead: Navigation Aids for Unknown Waters
Michael Kirby; Chairman, Australian Law Reform Commission
Lecture title: Law Reform: Filling the International Vacuum
Emeritus Professor Peter Karmel; Founding Vice-Chancellor, Chairman Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission
Lecture title: Universities to 1984 and Beyond
Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042
South Australia | Northern Territory
Global | Online
CRICOS Provider: 00114A TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12097 TEQSA category: Australian University
Flinders University uses cookies to ensure website functionality, personalisation and a variety of purposes as set out in its website privacy statement. This statement explains cookies and their use by Flinders.
If you consent to the use of our cookies then please click the button below:
If you do not consent to the use of all our cookies then please click the button below. Clicking this button will result in all cookies being rejected except for those that are required for essential functionality on our website.