Speakers
Professor Welby Ings
Professor Welby Ings is a writer, filmmaker, designer and educational reformer. He promotes the idea of Disobedient Thinking as an agent for change. He has given keynote addresses at conferences in Vienna, Prague, Helsinki and Gottenburg on the role of such thinking in relation to leadership, creative research practice and survival in damaged hierarchies. In February 2018, Professor Ings will join the line-up of keynote speakers at the 3rd International Conference on Postdisciplinary Approaches.
Although his controversial book Disobedient Teaching: Surviving and Creating Change in Education was published in 2017, Professor Ings’ other notable contributions have included film. His cinematic stories have been selected for numerous international festivals including Berlin and Cannes, and his short film Boy was shortlisted for the 2006 Academy Awards.
Professor Ings sees creativity as integral to influencing change and he argues against the micromanaging of thinking, learning and performance.
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Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Linda Tuhiwai Smith is Professor of Education and Māori Development at the University of Waikato and holds the position of Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori. She is a Fellow of the American Association for Research in Education, and serves on a number of New Zealand’s research organisations and funding bodies. Dr Smith was awarded a New Zealand Honour in 2012 and a Distinguished Companion of The New Zealand Order of Merit. Her book Decolonising Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples has been an international best seller in the indigenous world since its publication in 1998.
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Frith Walker
Frith Walker is the manager of Place Making, Panuku Development Auckland.
Panuku Development Auckland is Auckland Council's regeneration agency, managing around $1.9 billion of land and buildings owned by the council. But within this large scale mandate, it also strives to maintain the importance of a place-led, human scale approach, which is where placemaking comes in. Frith's work concentrates on creating successful public space networks and supporting the programming and activation of public spaces within Panuku development sites across Auckland. She champions the difference a healthy public realm can make in terms of creating liveable cities. Her philosophy is that if we focus solely on the aesthetics of the physical setting, we miss a fundamental factor in planning a new, positive addition to the city – the people.