Time: 5.00pm – 6.30pm
Price: Inclusive for full delegates, additional tickets can be purchased for $55 via the registration portal.
Location: Exhibition Area, Plaza Level, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre .
Sponsored by
Time: 5.00pm – 6.30pm
Price: Inclusive for full delegates, additional tickets can be purchased for $65 via the registration portal (includes ticket to performance of Purely Academic).
Location: Exhibition Area, Plaza Level, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Purely Academic
Price: Inclusive for full delegates and those attending the Poster Reception.
Location: Plaza Auditorium, Plaza Level, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre.
eResearch 2017 delegates are invited to attend a special performance of Purely Academic.
Directed by Cienda McNamara, written by David Abramson
A doctoral researcher sets out to pursue a successful academic career. He knows exactly where he wants to be, and he aims to get there as quickly as possible. He gets a PhD and rises rapidly through the academic ranks, walking over anyone and anything that stands in his way. Invincible, he reaches the pinnacle of his career and a bright future awaits, only for his past to return and challenge him.
Purely Academic is a both a realistic and comedic dramatisation of the darker side of academia, including both personal and professional clashes in technical collaborations. It invites an honest discussion about professional ethics and practices today. What “persona” is cultivated by today’s academic regime? With what impact? What does it mean to be an academic today? What does one need to learn to become one?
What People Say
This highly portable and thought provoking play far exceeded my expectations when I was fortunate enough to see the opening night performance at LMH. In the portrayal of the academics there were easily recognisable characteristics that I have observed and experienced in various colleagues during my years here in Oxford. However luckily for us, the many negative attributes of the main character, Charles Middleman, are rarely found concentrated all in one person! During the play, Charles transitioned from a grabbing, inconsiderate, and over ambitious graduate student with limited intellectual powers to a Professor of the same ilk.
The ethical issues raised by the play are highly pertinent, especially in a climate of reduced research funding and the metric based assessments within the Research Excellence Framework (REF). As a vehicle to instigate discussion on the basic values within research collaborations and across the academic community, I found this play to be highly effective.
Professor Elspeth Garman, University of Oxford
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