In this special episode recorded at UNSW's Diversity Fest, we examine the rising global threats to diversity and inclusion through a disability lens. Join Ebe Ganon in conversation with Professor Jackie Leach Scully (Director, Disability Innovation Institute UNSW), Professor Alistair McEwan (former Disability Royal Commissioner), and Dr Supriya Subramani (University of Sydney) as they unpack everything from Trump's harmful rhetoric to Australia's NDIS challenges, university diversity strategies, and what meaningful allyship actually looks like.

Professor Jackie Leach Scully – Director, Disability Innovation Institute at UNSW. Expert in disability bioethics and the philosophy of embodiment.

Professor Alastair McEwin – Former commissioner on the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Former Australian Disability Discrimination Commissioner.

Dr Supriya Subramani – Ethics researcher at the University of Sydney, examining structural injustice, everyday indignities, and the ethics of belonging.

This episode was recorded at UNSW's 2025 Diversity Fest. Special thanks to the Disability Innovation Institute of UNSW for hosting the event and allowing us to share this important conversation.

This episode discusses discrimination, violence against people with disability, ableism, racism, and systemic oppression. References to deaths of people with disability in institutional settings and COVID-19 discrimination.

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For students who want to transform their universities. For staff ready to build genuinely inclusive systems. For academics and professionals who think big about what Australian higher education could become.

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Full transcript: Available at higherhopespod.com

Produced on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.

In this conversation, Ebe sits down with Dr Tracy Woodroffe, a Warumungu Luritja senior lecturer at Charles Darwin University, to talk about what it really means to embed Indigenous knowledge in Australian universities - and why our current approaches keep falling short.

Tracy shares her journey from childhood, to teacher, to academic, explaining why Indigenous perspectives can only be owned and delivered by Indigenous people, and what happens when non-Indigenous academics try to speak for communities they're not part of. They discuss the exhaustion of being tokenised as "the Indigenous expert", and the glass ceilings that persist even in supposedly progressive institutions.

The conversation also explores parallels between Indigenous and disability communities' experiences of tokenism, the difference between genuine partnership and performative allyship, and what it would look like if universities actually structured themselves to centre Indigenous knowledge rather than treating it as a weekly add-on.

Links mentioned:

• Tracy's publications and work in pedagogy, education, and leadership: https://researchers.cdu.edu.au/en/persons/tracy-ann-woodroffe
• Tracy's paper on work-like balance and managing identity: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-97-2823-7_6

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For students who want to transform their universities. For staff ready to build genuinely inclusive systems. For academics and professionals who think big about what Australian higher education could become.

Ready to raise the bar?

Support the podcast: higherhopespod.com
Follow us: LinkedIn @HigherHopesPod | Instagram @higherhopespod
Full transcript: Available at higherhopespod.com

Produced on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.

The Disability Discrimination Act review is happening right now - and it could fundamentally change how disability rights work in Australian universities. But only if the sector actually gets involved.

In this episode, Ebe unpacks four game-changing reforms proposed in the DDA review and why every person in our sector needs to engage with this once-in-a-generation opportunity for change.

What you'll learn

• How universities have historically been absent from disability law reform conversations
• Four key areas of DDA reform that could transform university experiences for staff and students with disability
• How a positive duty framework could incentivise proactive inclusion rather than reactive crisis management
• Why removing 'reasonable' as a qualifier for adjustments matters
• How inherent requirements are being misused as tools of exclusion
• Why disability action plans currently function as "insurance policies" rather than accountability tools
• The cost of inaction - and why proactive inclusion is more efficient than the current system

Get involved in the DDA review

• DDA Review Issues Paper - Attorney-General's Department
• DDA Review consultation page - Australian Human Rights Commission

Background reading

• Why the university sector must engage with the Disability Discrimination Act review - Ebe's original Substack post that sparked this episode
• Disability Standards for Education 2005 - Department of Education

Support the show

For students who want to transform their universities. For staff ready to build genuinely inclusive systems. For academics and professionals who think big about what Australian higher education could become.

Ready to raise the bar?

Support the podcast: higherhopespod.com
Follow us: LinkedIn @HigherHopesPod | Instagram @higherhopespod
Full transcript: Available at higherhopespod.com

Produced on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.

In this inaugural episode, we dive into the power of student collectivism and what it actually takes to build genuine advocacy movements within universities. Host Ebe Ganon sits down with Gemma Lucy Smart, a PhD candidate and seasoned disability advocate who serves as both Disability Equity Officer and HDR Equity Officer for the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association, plus represents postgraduate students with disability nationally through the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.

Gemma shares her experience as a student advocate at the university and national level: we explore how student advocacy works and what drives student advocates, how to balance working within systems versus challenging them directly, and how student collectivism is a deeply valuable source of community and systemic change on campus.

Key topics

• The power of student collectivism vs individual advocacy
• Strategic decision-making: when to work within systems vs challenge them
• Supporting emerging student leaders and preventing burnout
• Building disability communities across undergraduate and postgraduate spaces
• Language politics in disability advocacy
• Co-production and co-design in university settings
• Universal Design for Learning and AI's role in accessible education
• Assumptions about disabled students in higher education

Connecting with student advocacy and networks

• SUPRA (Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association): https://supra.net.au/
• Students with Disability Leadership Collective: https://studentvoiceaustralasia.com/students-with-disability-leadership-collective
• Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations: https://www.capa.edu.au/
• National Union of Students (NUS): https://nus.asn.au/
• National Student Ombudsman: https://www.nso.gov.au/

Professional Networks for Staff

• Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Association: https://www.ephea.org/
• Australian Tertiary Education Network on Disability (ATEND): https://www.atend.com.au/

Universal Design for Learning Resources

• CAST (Centre for Applied Special Technology) UDL Guidelines: https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
• Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET): https://www.adcet.edu.au/

Gemma’s work:

• Writing in Honi Soit, the University of Sydney student paper: https://honisoit.com/author/gemma-lucy-smart/
• Gemma's research: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-5850

Support the show

For students who want to transform their universities. For staff ready to build genuinely inclusive systems. For academics and professionals who think big about what Australian higher education could become.

Ready to raise the bar?

Support the podcast: higherhopespod.com
Follow us: LinkedIn @HigherHopesPod | Instagram @higherhopespod
Full transcript: Available at higherhopespod.com

Produced on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.

Welcome to Higher Hopes, the podcast raising the bar for Australian universities. In this trailer episode, host Ebe Ganon introduces a new kind of conversation about systemic change in higher education - one that genuinely centres student voices, lived experience, and solutions to move our sector forward.

Tired of surface-level solutions and feel-good initiatives that don't actually shift the dial? Same. This podcast brings together students, advocates, academics, and progressive leaders for bold conversations about what's possible when universities actually live up to their potential.

From student leadership and governance reform to universal design for learning and genuine First Nations allyship, we're exploring how universities can serve staff and students from traditionally underserved backgrounds - and charting the path to get there.

No institutional BS allowed. We're reimagining higher education or we're not talking at all.

Support the show

For students who want to transform their universities. For staff ready to build genuinely inclusive systems. For academics and professionals who think big about what Australian higher education could become.

Ready to raise the bar?

Support the podcast: higherhopespod.com
Follow us: LinkedIn @HigherHopesPod | Instagram @higherhopespod
Full transcript: Available at higherhopespod.com

Produced on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.