2025 Simone Weil Lecture: Prof Stan Grant on ‘When Words Fail Us: Reclaiming a Language of Love’

The 2025 Simone Weil Lecture on Human Value will be delivered by Prof Stan Grant FASSA, one of Australia's most distinguished journalists and public intellectuals. A proud Wiradjuri man, his distinguished career in journalism spans more than three decades across Australian and international media, earning him three Walkley Awards, a Peabody Award and a DuPont Award. With a PhD in theology, Prof Grant has also held significant academic appointments at Griffith University and Charles Sturt University. His critically acclaimed books—including The Tears of Strangers, Talking to My Country, Australia Day, and On Identity—have shaped national conversations about race, reconciliation and national identity.

This is the second lecture in a two-lecture series inspired by Weil's essay Human Personality (1943) and her call to look beyond the usual language of politics and reach for a higher language of the soul. In addressing one of the great sins of modernity—our incomprehensibility—these lectures will respond to the populist politics of our time, exacerbated by the politics of identity, and the dehumanising effects of technology in our lives. The second lecture will focus particularly on how we might together reclaim a higher order of humanity, and the crucial role that is played in that by faith. (The first lecture will be delivered at ACU's Brisbane campus on 12 August and will focus on how the current political context constricts our ability to speak.)

Catering and refreshments will be served from 6pm. Lecture to start at 6.30pm.