Does play make us human?

Other animals play, but there is something unique about the human capacity to play and imagine throughout our lives. Many experts believe that our long childhoods of learning and exploration were pivotal in human evolution. At this event we’ll be exploring the traces of childhood, play and ritual in the ancient archaeological record; we’ll inquire whether the capacity to imagine and invent is rooted in childhood games; and we’ll ask how we might foster this deep human need in a world that sometimes seems unfriendly to open-ended and joyful exploration.

Michelle Langley

Speaker

Michelle Langley is an associate professor in the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University. Her research centres around the origins and development of human behaviour, which she explores through the study of artefacts made from hard animal materials like bone, tooth, antler, ivory and shell. She has a particular interest in childhood archaeology and is currently developing new methodologies for identifying the activities of children in the deep past. She is the author of A Record in Bone: Exploring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Bone and Tooth Objects (2023) and has had work published in Nature Communications, Nature Human Behaviour, Current Anthropology, Antiquity and the Journal of Human Evolution.

Michelle is on Twitter at @Dr_MClangley

Marilyn Fleer

Speaker

Marilyn Fleer holds the Foundation Chair in Early Childhood Education and Development at Monash University. Her research is centred around early childhood science and technologies, framed through cultural-historical theory. Her Laureate Fellowship, awarded by the Australian Research Council in 2018, on the theme ‘Imagination in play and imagination in STEM’ investigates the conditions for children’s conceptual thinking in play-based settings. In 2021 Marilyn was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and in 2022 was selected for the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. Her work has been published in journals such as Mind, Culture and Activity; Research in Science Education; Learning, Culture and Social Interaction and Cultural Studies of Science Education.

Marilyn is on Twitter at @marilynfleer

Genevieve Lacey

Artist

Genevieve Lacey is an internationally renowned musician, composer, collaborator and curator. She is an artist and arts advocate who connects people and ideas through multi-artform pieces that combine her interests in human possibility. She is a leading international recorder virtuoso, making regular appearances as a soloist with Australian and international orchestras including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and the Concerto Copenhagen. Genevieve’s highly poetic, evocative work has been showcased in concert halls, public art settings, film, theatre, dance, TV and the digital realm. With an extensive discography, she has won ARIA awards, the Melbourne Prize for Music and the Sidney Myer Individual Performing Arts Award. Genevieve is currently artistic director for Finding Our Voice and artistic advisor to UKARIA Cultural Centre.

Brigid Hains

Host

Brigid Hains is the editorial director of Aeon Media. An environmental historian by training, she is driven by a deep curiosity about the natural and human worlds. The Sophia Club is a chance for Brigid to express her love of beauty and the arts, and to share the heartfelt dimensions of her intellectual life.