WOMADelaide’s popular The Planet Talks series of discussions about weighty environmental and social matters will feature Flinders sleep expert Professor Danny Eckert, while an innovative project from Dr Sean Williams will be staged during the Adelaide Festival.

Speaking at the Frome Park pavilion within the Botanic Park festival site at 5.15pm on Monday March 9, Professor Eckert will speak on the topic – “I’m so tired of waking up tired. Are we in the midst of a sleep loss epidemic?”

The talk will focus on his research and work conducted through the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health at Flinders, and his role as Deputy Director and Theme Leader of Clinical Translation at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute.

Professor Eckert’s insights into the importance of sleep health represent part of an engaging program running throughout the four-day WOMADelaide festival of global music, arts and dance, in which forums host some of the world’s great thinkers and commentators launching into passionate discussions on some of today’s key issues.

Meanwhile, senior lecturer in creative writing Dr Sean Williams’ funded project ‘Deaf Storytellers Live’ recently came to fruition and will be unveiled at Adelaide Writers Week, as part of the Adelaide Festival.

This premiere storytelling event places deaf creativity and experience at the forefront sharing the linguistic richness, artistry and poetry of Auslan, and the power of stories from leaders in the deaf community.

Deaf Storytellers Live will take place on Sunday 1 March in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden. Four Deaf writers were paired with four hearing authors (including Dr Williams and Flinders University alumni Hannah Kent) to work on their craft, and the results will be read at this special Adelaide Writers’ Week session. Read more >