Raising the Bar

So why do terrorists want to kill us? - Professor Peter O'Connor

Stand proud nuclear free Aotearoa! - Associate Professor Treasa Dunworth

Imagining a world without prisons - Associate Professor Tracey McIntosh

Can't dance, won't dance? Move your thinking! - Carlene Newall de Jesus

A view to a kill, or the death of the music critic - Dr Davinia Caddy

Why social entrepreneurship matters: Getting real about profit AND purpose - Dr Deb Shepherd and Dr Jamie Newth

Simply the pests - Dr James Russell

Fighting for God: Religious conflicts in the middle ages and the twenty-first century - Dr Lindsay Diggelmann

Waging war against graffiti: The resilient nature of creative deviance - Dr Ronald Kramer

From glowing grubs to superbugs: the quest for new medicines - Dr Siouxsie Wiles

Drones and the Politics of Killing - Dr Thomas Gregory

How to build pop songs - Godfrey de Grut

Does the answer for obesity lie in the womb? - Jasmine Plows

Getting up in space: How hard can it be?  - Dr Jim Hefkey

How can we break down barriers to health communication - Dr Malvindar Singh-Bains

A party in your mouth? It’s just mastication - Professor Bryony James

Better than smart: Life among the robots - Professor Darl Kolb

What can the brains of sharks tell us about ourselves? - Professor John Montgomery

Science! You'll never believe what happened next - Professor Shaun Hendy

What is Raising the Bar?

Raising the Bar is a worldwide initiative aimed at making education a part of a city’s popular culture. It is a series of events held in bars on the same night. 

Raising the Bar began in New York in 2013. It is a social start-up, which describes its goal as ‘raising the bar on the content people consume in their everyday lives’, and ‘bringing intellectual content to the millennial generation via bar talks by notable University professors and industry leaders’.

It has also been held in San Francisco, Hong Kong, Sydney, London, and most recently, Melbourne. The hope is to offer access to intellectual content to over 5 million people worldwide by 2017.

For the University of Auckland it is an opportunity to raise awareness of our talented researchers and their work while reaching a diverse audience in an unconventional setting. It also aligns with our responsibility to disseminate research to the wider public.We have collaborated with bars in close proximity to one another in the hope that attendees may be able to visit more than one venue on the night.

Raising the Bar Auckland was a great success and will return next year.