Date/Time
Date(s) - Thu 6 November
18:00 - 19:00
Location
Lecture Theatre Two (RHLT2), Ground Floor, Rutherford House, VUW
Inaugural Lecture by Professor Rebecca Bednarek
Join Professor Rebecca Bednarek for her inaugural lecture discussing her research on the paradoxes and practices of disaster insurance.
Insurance isn’t just a financial product—it’s about how we live together with risk. When disasters strike, insurance can be a lifeline, but in a time of escalating risk there are tough social and moral questions: Who gets protected? Who pays? And what happens when the risks keep growing?
In this lecture, Professor Rebecca Bednarek will share insights from her global social science research into the paradoxes and practices of disaster insurance, including the role of public insurance, and asks how financial protection can be better embedded in wider systems of resilience.
These questions are urgent in Aotearoa New Zealand, one of the world’s most disaster-prone, and traditionally most insured countries. As disasters escalate, our insurance system faces mounting pressures of affordability and availability. This talk will open the debate on what that means for all of us.