Update: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Professor Mark McKenna will no longer be participating in our Sydney Writers’ Festival Panel, ‘Immersive Histories,’ on Thursday 3 May 2018.
Historical narratives can create a powerful experience for the reader when grounded in evidence and embedded with a strong sense of place. Winners of the 2017 New South Wales Premier’s History Awards – Peter Hobbins and Adam Clulow – and Senior Judge, Paul Ashton, talk to Caroline Butler-Bowdon from Sydney Living Museums about the awards and how they immersed themselves in evidence and place to create rich and engaging narratives.
When: Thursday 3 May 2018, 11:30am-12:30pm
Where: Carriageworks, Track 12, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015
Cost: Free. Bookings unavailable – arrive early to avoid disappointment.
This is a special event presented by the History Council of NSW
and the Sydney Writer’s Festival. The History Council is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Paul Ashton
Professor Paul Ashton is an adjunct at the University of Technology, Sydney, where he co-established the Australian Centre for Public History, and at Macquarie University and the University of Canberra. He has authored, co-authored and edited over 37 books including Once Upon a Time: Australian Writers on Using the Past and a history of Centennial Park. Paul is also co-editor of the journal Public History Review. On six occasions he has been a judge for the NSW Premier’s History Awards.
Peter Hobbins
As a historian of science, technology and medicine, Dr Peter Hobbins is drawn to danger, tragedy and failure. In writing about subjects ranging from smallpox to snakebite, and from forgotten scientists to aircraft crashes, he explores how our difficult pasts reveal moments of imagination, discovery and perseverance. Based at the University of Sydney, Peter’s co-authored book, Stories from the Sandstone: Quarantine Inscriptions from Australia’s Immigrant Past (Arbon Publishing, 2016), won the Community and Regional History Prize at the 2017 NSW Premier’s History Awards.
Adam Clulow
Adam Clulow is an Associate Professor of History at Monash University. He is the author of The Company and the Shogun: The Dutch Encounter with Tokugawa Japan (Columbia University Press, 2014) which won multiple awards including the Jerry Bentley Prize in World History from the American Historical Association and the W K Hancock Prize from the Australian Historical Association. He is the creator of The Amboyna Conspiracy Trial, which won the 2017 NSW Premier’s Multimedia History Prize.
Caroline Butler-Bowden
Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon is the Director of Strategy and Engagement at Sydney Living Museums. Spanning 20 years her career has been dedicated to cultural leadership that connects diverse audiences to arts and heritage through a broad range of public engagement programs. She is the winner of multiple awards for projects including festivals, exhibitions and books exploring urban life, architecture and design across the centuries.