Family and local history can strengthen communities and give voice to their diverse stories. But how do you turn your research into powerful stories that capture a wide audience and have global and contemporary relevance?
Join the History Council of NSW with guest speakers Nancy Cushing, Andrew May, Julie McIntyre and Sue Ryan, as they share their skills and experience in connecting family and local histories with current issues and audiences.
After the guest speakers deliver their session, there will be time for questions and participants are invited to share their ideas and/or research for feedback.
Presented by the History Council of NSW with support from the School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle at the Newcastle Writers Festival 2018. The History Council of NSW’s activities are supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
When: 11:00am to 1:00pm, Friday 6 April 2018
Where: Room X201, NeW Space, University of Newcastle
Cnr Hunter and Auckland Streets (Enter on Hunter St)
Cost: Free, limited places*
Download festival program
*Please note: this masterclass is not ticketed and seats are offered on a ‘first in, first served’ basis. Admission cannot be guaranteed for free sessions.
Our speakers
Nancy Cushing
Associate Professor, University of Newcastle
Nancy Cushing is Associate Professor in Australian history at the University of Newcastle. Her interest in the history of crime began with research into Louisa Collins, the last woman to be hanged in NSW, and continues in her teaching of an undergraduate course, ‘Australian Underworlds’. Her primary research area is Australian environmental history, with a secondary interest in the history of Newcastle, as a co-founder of the Global Newcastle Research Network.
Her books include Radical Newcastle with James Bennett and Erik Eklund (NewSouth Press, 2015), Smoky City: A History of Air Pollution in Newcastle with Howard Bridgman (Hunter Press, 2015) and forthcoming, Animals Count with Jodi Frawley (Routledge, 2018).
Andrew May
Professor, University of Melbourne
Andrew J May is Professor of History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. He has published widely as a social historian with interests across urban, colonial and imperial history, including Melbourne Street Life (1998), Espresso! Melbourne Coffee Stories (2001), as director and co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Melbourne (2005), and Welsh Missionaries and British imperialism: The Empire of Clouds in North-East India (2012).
Andrew directs the Melbourne History Workshop, a studio-based research collaboratory that pools the expertise of staff, research higher degree students and affiliates to provide innovative and rigorously-applied historical research, postgraduate training, industry collaboration and community-facing projects. Recent projects include the ‘My Marvellous Melbourne’ podcast.
Julie McIntyre
Research Fellow, University of Newcastle
Dr Julie McIntyre is a Research Fellow in History at the University of Newcastle. She investigates how the growing, making, selling and drinking of Australian wine is a window to changing identities, ecologies and landscapes. Her book First Vintage: Wine in Colonial New South Wales won a Gourmand prize and was shortlisted for a NSW Premier’s History Awards. This year NewSouth will publish Julie’s new book, co-authored with John Germov, which has the working title Talking with the Earth: The Hunter Valley wine community since 1828. Julie is the State Library of NSW’s 2018 Merewether Fellow and assistant editor of the Journal of Wine Research (UK).
Sue Ryan
Coordinator, Newcastle Region Library
Sue Ryan is the Coordinator, Local History at Newcastle Region Library. Sue is a member of the Global Newcastle network, a partnership between Newcastle Region Library and the University of Newcastle, which aims to highlight Newcastle as a global city through the digital curation of the Library’s collections and support for new research to reveal Newcastle’s place in the world.