History Matters & So Does How it is Told

Name: History Matters & So Does How it is Told - Berry Writers Festival
SKU: HISTORY

The story of our past -- as individuals, and collectively as communities, nations, and indeed empires -- is the bedrock of understanding the present and perceiving the outlines of the future. But how history is told – and by whom -- matters greatly. Author and journalist David Marr, historian Alison Bashford, and Marc Fennell, author and presenter of the ABC’s Stuff the British Stole, discuss how history is transmitted – in books, on screen, and now in podcasts -- by both scholars and non-scholars, and to what effect, both good and bad.

Featuring:
Marc Fennell, David Marr & Alison Bashford

Moderated by: Christina Slade

Location: Berry School of Arts

Saturday, 26 Oct: 10.30-11.30am

This Session has Sold Out

Featuring:

Alison Bashford

Alison Bashford is a historian of science and Scientia Professor at UNSW, Sydney. Her recent book on the Huxley dynasty, An Intimate History of Evolution, won the Nib Literary Award (2023), was an Economist best book of the year, and was shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize. She is also winner of the Dan David Laureate Prize for her contribution to the history of medicine. Alison’s next book, Secrets Disclosed: A History of the Hand, explores the strange history of palmistry and its connection to genetics.

Marc Fennell

Marc Fennell is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and documentary maker. A five-time medallist at the New York Festivals TV and Radio Awards, Marc has been nominated twice for Europe’s prestigious Rose d’Or Awards for Excellence in Television. He is a recipient of America’s coveted James Beard Foundation Award, an Asian Creative Academy National Award, and Webby Award Honors. The Times (UK) has called Marc the “cheerful Aussie version of Louis Theroux”.

Marc is the creator of the popular, award-winning television series and podcast Stuff the British Stole for ABC Australia and CBC Canada. He is also the quizmaster of SBS TV’s Mastermind and has fronted groundbreaking docs like the Logie & AACTA-nominated School That Tried to End Racism (ABC 2021), The Kingdom (SBS 2023), The Mission (SBS 2023), Rose d’Or-shortlisted art-heist docu-series Framed (SBS 2021), as well as the hit Audible Original Podcasts It Burns (2019), Nut Jobs (2020), and House of Skulls (2023).

David Marr

David Marr’s books include Patrick White: A Life, The High Price of Heaven, Dark Victory (with Marian Wilkinson), Panic, My Country and, most recently, Killing For Country, as well as six best-selling Quarterly Essays. He has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian and The Monthly, and served as editor of The National Times, a reporter for Four Corners, and presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch. He will succeed Phillip Adams as presenter of ABC Radio National's Late Night Live in June 2024.

Moderated by:

Christina Slade

Christina Slade has published on critical and creative thinking, citizenship, language, and the role of media in national identity. Her research is at the intersection of philosophy and media. Christina is Emeritus Professor at Bath Spa University, where she was the Vice-Chancellor. Prior to that, she was Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at City University London, Dean of Humanities at Macquarie University, Professor of Media Theory at the University of Utrecht, and Head of the Creative Communication School at the University of Canberra.

The Berry Writers Festival acknowledges the Dharawal and Dhurga language-speaking groups who are traditional owners of this area. We acknowledge their customs and culture, which have nourished, and continue to nourish, this land. And we extend our respects to Elders, past, present, and future.