The COVID-19 pandemic has caused uncertainty and stress for so many university students.

So how can universities support and reach out to students? And how do students build up their resilience?

Professor Sarah Wilson is the Pro Vice-Chancellor Student Life at the University of Melbourne and an internationally recognised expert in cognitive neuroscience and clinical neuropsychology.

She says a sense of belonging and connection is crucial for mental health and wellbeing.

“We know that social friendships, even just a brief hello with the local barista while we are ordering a coffee, social contacts, connections are in fact the things that alter our mood and protect our mental health because they are associated with increases in our sense of wellbeing.”

And while COVID-19 has made that challenging, people should take the opportunity to reconnect as restrictions ease.

“Our sense of belonging and connection and your sense of mental health and wellbeing depends on you stepping out of that door and not stepping back in, but hopping on the tram, or on your bike, or in your car... and being part of the community.”

Professor Wilson also says it’s important to get used to the “idea of change” as we move through lockdown and pandemic restrictions.

“Having in our toolkit, methods for starting to learn to live with this virus and accepting that this fluctuating pattern might be part of life for the foreseeable future and learning to adapt to that.”

Episode recorded: June 21, 2021.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Part exhibition, part experiment, MENTAL is a welcoming place to confront societal bias and stereotypes about mental health. It features 21 works from local and international artists and research collaborators that explore different ways of being, surviving and connecting to each other. Opening in July 2021, book your free tickets now.

Banner: SELFCARE4EVA_2001 by Mary Angley and Caithlin O’Loghlen: Installation view, MENTAL: Head Inside, Science Gallery Melbourne. Picture: Alan Weedon.

As consumers and citizens we have very little say about how AI technologies are used, what control we have over their use and what is said about us, says Jeannie Paterson, Professor of Law and Co-director of the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics at the Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne.

“Technology has a lot of potential for improving people’s lives, in terms of including marginalised people or providing access and equity to people who are otherwise disadvantaged. In fact, I’m a technology optimist,” says Professor Paterson.

She points out that most people would be aware that their social media activity generates information and data about them that is being collected and used to target advertising at them.

“The issue is that our interactions with the world are being mediated through these digital profiles that are created about us, so we cease to be ourselves – full, rich, interesting humans.

For example, “there are all sorts of stories about the way now that insurance pricing is determined by your credit score or the friends you associate with.”

Professor Paterson explains that when algorithms are used to make important decisions, we also need to have oversight by people who understand the context of the information being used. For example, there may be valid social reasons or other political or policy reasons why we shouldn’t really be relying merely on past performance or past behaviour to make important decisions about the future.

“When the ads that are being shot back to you are news reports, conspiracy theories or political views based on something you looked at in the past, that’s the challenge to democracy and to ourselves,” she says.

“And the promise of AI in medicine, for example, isn’t that it will replace doctors, but that it will help doctors do the job that they want to do better. The best relationship with AI is one of collaboration rather than domination or control.”

Episode recorded: June 16, 2021.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: Getty images.

The COVID era has reinforced the vital nature of friendship, community and connection - not just to other humans but also nature, algorithms, animals and art.

As you'll hear in this episode, friendship also influences our health and humanity.

Featuring:

Rosie Braidotti - contemporary philosopher and feminist theoretician at Utrecht University

Professor Nikos Papastergiadis - from the University of Melbourne Arts Faculty, author of ‘On Art and Friendship’

Dr Katie Greenaway - from University of Melbourne's Psychological Sciences, researcher on social connection

Our sound engineer is Arch Cuthbertson.

Your hosts and researchers are Dr Andi Horvath ad Dr Suzie Fraser.

Additional voices are Siri and Chris Hatzis.

The producer is Dr Andi Horvath.

Production assistant is Silvi Vann-Wall.

This podcast was recorded in December 2020 and January 2021.

It’s estimated that there are 5.5 million insect species on Earth, says Phil Batterham, Professor Emeritus at the School of BioSciences and the Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne. “Those that are pests may number in hundreds, so it’s a minority of insects that cause damage in agriculture.

“In fact, many insects are beneficial and really vital to us and to ecosystems.”

Professor Batterham’s research looks at the interaction of chemical insecticides with pest insects and beneficial ones, like bees.

“If you spray a fly with insecticide it dies quite rapidly because it binds to a target protein in the brain. So, many insecticides aren’t really pest-specific at all because they also bind to proteins in the brains of non-pest insects.”

Professor Batterham’s work aims to understand these insecticide interactions so as to underpin the development of more effective and sustainable control strategies that have a reduced environmental impact.

“A former PhD student Felipe Martelli examined low-dose impacts of insecticides on a model insect organism called Drosophila (fruit fly). He worked on two classes of insecticides, one called imidacloprid, which has been banned in agricultural settings in Europe because of demonstrated impacts on the honeybee. The other was an organic insecticide called spinosad.

“Felipe showed these insecticides were damaging mitochondria, which are the energy centres in cells. There was a precipitous drop in energy levels in short term exposures. In longer chronic exposures in adults, he saw neurodegeneration and blindness.

“And although spinosad is labelled as organic, it creates more damage at much lower doses than imidacloprid does.

“It’s really important for us to study other insecticides and verify that they are causing such damage or clear them of it. At the moment we need to use insecticides in agriculture and as a bare minimum, we need to be using the safest ones.

“Insecticides are important for food production, but they may be having impacts on pollinators which are also essential for food production.”

Episode recorded: June 15, 2021.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: Getty Images.

The speed of climate decline is reaching an alarming tipping point. Now, we are calling on all social media influencers and creative artists: it's time to hold the big companies to account, and go viral... for Earth’s sake.

In this episode, we explore how the art of viral marketing can influence science for good.

This podcast was made possible by the University of Melbourne and the Centre of Visual Art.

Thanks to our guests: Margaret Wertheim, Brent Coker, and Will Steffen.

Your hosts were Dr Andi Horvath and Dr Suzie Frazer, audio engineering was by Arch Cuthbertson, with production assistance from Silvi Vann-Wall.

This episode was recorded on the 11th of August 2020.

“People have been worried about opera’s demise for about four centuries now,” says Dr Caitlin Vincent, Lecturer in Creative Industries at the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.

“It’s a very old art form. We first saw western opera emerge in the 1600s in Italy and in the 21st century we’re coming across the issue that opera is really defined by its museum work - the greatest hits of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries - that are still the mainstay of opera companies worldwide.”

Dr Vincent explains that in order to maintain the tradition of these works, some companies are resorting to problematic and outdated practices like blackface or yellowface makeup.

“This is where you start to get a rift between different kinds of audiences, between the really traditionalist audiences who say opera should be done exactly the way as it was first intended to be done and between more modern, progressive audiences that say, we love opera but it needs to be updated in order to reflect a modern-day society,” she says.

So how can we interpret these works in a way that does not perpetuate harmful stereotypes or cultural appropriation?

One of the popular and successful strategies is education, Dr Vincent says.

“Companies program problematic works like Madam Butterfly or The Mikado alongside educational initiatives that are designed to contextualise the works, framing it as a historical artefact and giving you the history that you need.”

“The other thing about cultural appropriation, is who are the people who have been hired to interpret these works on stage? Do they represent diverse viewpoints, do they have any connection to the culture that is being portrayed on stage?

“What we really need is to try to embed support for emerging composers and mid-career librettists to promote talent in Australia, the United States and the UK to actually cultivate those voices of the next generation.

“Otherwise, we will just continue to program Madam Butterfly and Turandot forever, until eventually we can’t anymore because they’re too problematic.”

Episode recorded: June 1, 2021.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: In the Box by Mary Cassatt (Photo by Francis G. Mayer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images).

Einstein theorised a point in the universe where time, space and gravity bend. Almost 100 years later, we took a photo... a photo of something we weren’t even sure was there. Now it hangs in an art gallery. Is it really art? Come with us to edges of the universe - and back again to New York.

In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer.

This podcast was made possible by the University of Melbourne and the Centre of Visual Art.

Thanks to our guests: Margaret Wertheim and Peter Galison.

Your hosts were Dr Andi Horvath and Dr Suzie Frazer, audio engineering was by Arch Cuthbertson, with production assistance by Silvi Vann-Wall.

This episode was recorded on the 11th of August 2020.

“I don’t think many people watching films understand how much work and how many people actually go into creating [special] effects,” says Genevieve Camilleri, a visual effects artist, nominated in the 2021 Academy Awards for her work on the film Love and Monsters.

“Basically there’s multiple departments, starting from somebody who ingests the film footage that they shot on set, and then the next artist creates a CG (computer-generated) camera to replicate the one on set. That’s passed to the next department that will create, say in Love and Monsters, one of the big CG creatures.

“The next person animates it to move him the way that he needs to into the footage, for another artist to add texture and colour. After that the next artist renders out those computer graphic images for the last department to put it all together with the live action footage.

“It’s quite a complicated process. To create just two seconds of film, could involve up to 10 people and a couple of months of work.”

Ms Camilleri says “working on (Love and Monsters) was fun, it was quirky and different, but it never crossed our mind that it would be entered into the Academy Awards and of course be nominated for an Oscar.”

Initially headed for a career in biotechnology, Ms Camilleri instead decided on a Postgrad Diploma in Visual Effects at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.

“To be honest for me it’s following what you enjoy. I think if you do something that you really enjoy and you’re passionate about, you’re going to succeed at it because you’re putting your heart into it. Then to get paid for it as well at the same time is just a double reward there,” says Ms Camilleri.

“But in terms of getting into visual effects (VFX) itself, it’s quite a technical and creative industry, so finding a balance between learning between both of those things I think is really important.”

Although ‘Love and Monsters’ made it into the final nominations, it was the film ‘Tenet’ that was awarded the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2021.

Episode recorded: May 17, 2021.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: Getty Images.

“Happiness itself isn’t overrated. I think happiness is great and I like being happy as much as possible, but sometimes what we don’t realise is the psychology behind it,” says Brock Bastian, Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

“We know from psychology that the human mind often works in fairly ironic ways, so when you’ve focused on something too much, or try not to experience something, it actually produces the opposite. A good example is pink elephants, where you ask people not to think about pink elephants... (but then) they tend to think about them more,” he says.

Professor Bastian explains that many of us have a mistaken idea that we can continually build happiness and become, ever happier.

“No matter what we do in life, we do tend to come back to somewhat of a resting baseline around happiness and this can be slightly different for different people. If you go and rent yourself a room in a five-star hotel it’s going to make you incredibly happy for a little while, ultimately you’ll eventually get used to it though and probably that initial happiness you experienced won’t continue.

“I think it’s fair to say that it’s very hard to really experience any happiness in life if we don’t also have its opposite. That means sometimes leaning into, I suppose fearlessly in some way, those experiences which can seem difficult, challenging, hard, even painful. It’s actually through that process that we achieve happiness.

Professor Bastian says two examples that provide people with a sense of achievement, satisfaction and happiness – meaningful happiness – are running a marathon and graduating from a course.

“So I guess I would just simply say don’t focus on happiness as a goal in and of itself, it won’t work,” he says.

“Focus on other things that you think are actually going to make a difference and that are going to contribute to the world and to your own life in meaningful ways. Then you’ll probably find along the way that you’ll notice one day that you wake up and think I’m actually a little bit happier than I was.”

Episode recorded: April 22, 2021.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: Getty Images.

“One of the biggest problems we face is people thinking ‘we’ll just throw mindfulness at them and it’ll fix the problem’ or at least it feels like it’s fixing the problem,” says Dr Nicholas Van Dam, Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

“We’re increasingly seeing that [mindfulness] isn’t a silver bullet, it’s not a panacea. It won’t fix every problem for every person and it probably shouldn’t be for every child in every school. That kind of thinking just probably isn’t going to work and the science doesn’t support that, but we’re starting to get better.”

Dr Van Dam is the inaugural director of the Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne, a first point of entry into the world of mindfulness, meditation and contemplative practice.

The Centre focuses on interdisciplinary, evidence-based research into contemplative practice and methodology.

“We’re trying to understand these practices - we’re starting to actually look at comparing meditation practices against good active controls, which is something that’s been lacking,” he says.

“This combination of mindfulness (and) meditation is important, but the confusion is very real. People often think they’re interchangeable when they’re not. Often when people are talking about mindfulness, they’re talking about the quality or the activity, it’s a way of engaging with the world. Meditation is a much broader set of largely introspective practices, where you’re looking inside.

“So mindfulness isn’t as present moment as people often think it is. It’s kind of like a remembering to pay attention, a remembering to be present, a remembering to be aware. However what you’re aware of, what you’re attending to, doesn’t necessarily have to be the present.

“That’s often the goal, but as you’re sitting thinking or as you’re going about your day, the mind will wander to the past, it will wander to the future. That’s fine. It’s all about how you engage with that.”

Episode recorded: April 8, 2021.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: Getty Images.

“There’s nothing inevitable about any form of sexual violence,” says University of Melbourne criminologist Professor Bianca Fileborn.

Professor Fileborn researches the range of factors surrounding how sexual violence occurs – from gender, sexual orientation and identity, to societal attitudes, and the locations where it happens. But Professor Fileborn has a particular focus on the sexual violence occurring on the street and at music festivals.

For her, a critical question is what can be done to counter the sexual violence we see in society, which is perpetrated predominately against women and the LGBTIQA+ communities. She says we can’t just rely on law reform, which has for decades failed to deliver substantive change.

“I’m much more interested in, firstly, what can we do around preventing sexual violence and in changing those norms, attitudes and structural factors that drive sexual violence in the first place.

“Secondly, how might we develop alternative avenues for achieving a sense of justice, because it’s pretty clear that the mainstream justice system just isn’t up to task.”

One alternative is “transformative” justice, which she says is “aimed at actually challenging and undoing those structural factors that underpin sexual violence.”

“It could involve working with a perpetrator to challenge and change their understandings of masculinity that led to them perpetrating in the first place. It can also involve supporting perpetrators who might be marginalised in other ways, for example in relation to mental health or, say, a lack of employment.

“Finally, it’s also focused on working with survivors to help them to heal and recover and to ensure that they’re safe in the community at all times.”

If you need support or more information on this issue, please contact 1800 Respect national helpline: 1800 737 732 or Lifeline: 131 114.

Professor Fileborn is the author of Reclaiming the Night-Time Economy - Unwanted Sexual Attention in Pubs and Clubs, and Co-editor of #MeToo and the Politics of Social Change.

Episode recorded: March 30, 2021.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner image: Getty Images.