The Abbotsford Convent will host a live philosophy night in March with Sophia Club bringing their sell-out philosophy event to one of the city’s most iconic cultural sites.
Sophia Club, an international Live Philosophy series in London and New York, has found its most enthusiastic audience yet in Melbourne, consistently selling out venues, and attracting a large, curious audience.
Founded in 2022 the event quickly outgrew its original rooftop home on Flinders Street and moved to the Brunswick Ballroom where it consistently sells out. Sophia Club is now partnering with Abbotsford Convent for an end of summer special event at the 300-capacity Magdalen Laundry. The first Sophia Club Live Philosophy event at the Convent will take place on Thursday 12 March, with the provocative theme “Is a river alive and a koala a person?”, taking a radical look at our ethical relationship with nature and non-human beings.
The event brings together social and environmental researcher and advocate Melissa Kennedy, whose work centres First Nations’ inherent rights and responsibilities to water and Dr Erin O’Donnell, a leading expert in water law and the ground-breaking new field of legal rights for rivers, alongside artist Tina Stefanou, a Naarm/Melbourne-based practitioner whose interdisciplinary work explores human and more-than-human relationships through sound, film and installation.
Sophia Club takes philosophy out of lecture theatres and into vibrant cultural spaces, pairing an “in conversation” discussion between a host and guest speakers with live music, dance and artistic performances.
Past topics have included The Meaning of Time, Beauty and the Good Life, and What’s Wrong with Death.
The “Is a river alive and a koala a person?” topic at the 12 March event will be a fascinating exploration of whether rivers, ecosystems and elements of the natural world should be recognised as rights-bearing entities. Should we think of rivers as legal persons with rights? And what about animals? How can non-Indigenous law and ethics learn from Indigenous knowledge?
The Sophia Club partnership has strong, natural alignment with the Abbotsford Convent’s vision as a place for contemporary ideas, creativity and public conversation.
“Sophia Club brings rigorous thinking into a shared, social space,” said Justine Hyde, CEO of Abbotsford Convent Foundation, the not-for-profit social enterprise which manages the arts, culture and learning precinct.
“The Convent has always been a home for artists, writers and thinkers, and this series speaks directly to our future as a place where ideas are explored in ways that are accessible and alive.”
Alongside its programming, Sophia Club is also known for its welcoming approach, including a dedicated ‘social table’ for solo attendees.
Editorial Director and Sophia Club host, Brigid Hains, said the Melbourne response had exceeded all expectations. “There couldn’t be a more beautiful and apposite place to talk about the lives of rivers and the rights of Nature than at the Convent, in the sheltering sweep of the Birrarung, and surrounded by such creative, thoughtful endeavour.”
Sophia Club: Live Philosophy
Thursday 12 March, 7.30pm
Magdalen Laundry
Published 23 February 2026.