Talks
Join us for an exciting program of talks and seminars on literary, historical and contemporary issues, together with presentations about, and showings of, the Library's rich collections.
You can also listen to selected talks online.
Wednesday 19 June, 6.00 PM
Talk: Benjamin Franklin and the Birth of Medical Electricity, presented by Professor Stanley Finger
Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), a leading political figure during the American War of Independence, was also deeply involved with science and medicine. One of the questions that interested him was whether electricity might have medical utility. He was the leading ‘electrician’ of his day, and one of the first individuals to conduct ‘tryals’ on palsied patients to see if he could restore their normal movement, which it did not. He experimented to see if electricity might cure deafness and/ or hysteria. Franklin and his Dutch colleague, Jan Ingenhousz, might have been the first to suggest that shocks to the head could help patients suffering from melancholic madness, an idea confirmed before the 18th century ended.
Thursday 20 June, 6.00 PM
Talk: Out of the Vault: Colonial Views
There was a thriving popular press in colonial Australia which illustrated daily life as it was lived. Images including landscapes, townscapes, murderers, eccentrics, politicians and actresses are all part of the Library’s unrivalled collection. These everyday images were produced locally and were widely available. This talk, presented by Mitchell Librarian Richard Neville, will include examples from the Library’s rich collection.This event is part of the Out of the Vaults series.
Thursday 20 June, 6.00 PM
Talk: Walkley Media Talk: Stop the boats – or stop the hype?
Some politicians, journalists and media commentators would have us believe that Australia is being over-run by “illegal arrivals”, placing our own livelihoods at risk – but how much of what they tell us is true? Is Australia doing more than its fair share to help refugees – or not nearly enough? What role do journalists play in shaping the public debate about asylum seekers and perpetuating or counteracting popular myths? What do journalists find when they go to the source countries – Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and Malaysia – to uncover the human stories behind the headlines? As hundreds of boatloads of people continue to arrive on Australian shores and the government argues about “solutions”, is the situation spiralling out of control?
In this special Walkleys Media Talk for World Refugee Day on June 20, join ABC Stateline host Quentin Dempster as he leads our panel of speakers Steve Pennells (2012 Gold Walkley Award-winner, The West Australian), Robin de Crespigny (author, The People Smuggler) and Jessie Taylor (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea) through a challenging and thought-provoking conversation.
This event is part of the Walkley Media Talks series.
Wednesday 26 June, 5.30 PM
Talk: Hail Fellows: A Night with the Library Fellows
Join two Library Fellows for a fascinating night learning about a diverse range of research and ideas.
Thursday 27 June, 6.00 PM
Talk: By the Book
If you had to choose four books that changed your life, what would they be?
There are certain books that change the way we think about the world or even how we see ourselves. These are the books that we want to share with everyone who will listen!
Every month we invite a well known speaker to share with us four books that have been significant to them. By the Book encourages passionate conversations about books, ideas and stories. You may even be inspired to create your own list of books that changed you.
This event is part of the By the Book series.
Tuesday 2 July, 11.00 AM
Talk: Scholarly Musing - Dr. Angela Dunstan
This paper draws upon the Woolner letters held by the Mitchell library to examine the shifting aesthetic and economic value of sculpture in the nineteenth century, examining the implications of the expansion of the marketplace for sculpture in the colonies and the role of celebrity in the rise of individual sculptors and the popularity of certain sculptural forms.
Thursday 4 July, 6.00 PM
Special event: Behind-the-scenes tour of SMH Photos 1440 with Sandra Harrison & Dallas Kilponen
Sandra Harrison, Commercial Editor of Visuals, and photographer Dallas Kilponen, both from the Sydney Morning Herald, give this behind-the-scenes tour of Photos1440. Sandra will talk about the challenges of editing the Photos1440 exhibition and her role as Photo Editor at the Sydney Morning Herald. She will be joined by current photo editor, Mags King. Dallas Kilponen talks about sports photography and covering some of the biggest sporting moments in Australia, including being a crew member for the Sydney to Hobart boat race.In association with the Photos 1440 exhibition.
Tuesday 9 July, 6.00 PM
Talk: The Story Behind the Picture
With 79 years of experience between them and thousands of photos taken, join Sydney Morning Herald photographers Dallas Kilponen, Nick Moir and Marco Del Grande as they tell the stories behind their photos.
The panel MC will be Sandra Harrison and there will be a Q&A session.
In association with the Photos 1440 exhibition.
Wednesday 10 July, 10.00 AM
Talk: Daring Ideas: Is Land Rights Enough?
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act. Join us to discuss the significance of Aboriginal land rights today in a hanging global, social and economic order.
Over time, the 30-year statute has changed, new laws have come into existence (such as Native Title) and new ideas now circulate.
Thursday 11 July, 6.00 PM
Talk: The Book Stack 3: Book (night)club
Bring a book you have read and loved, chat to anyone in the room and find someone to swap with. It doesn’t matter if it is fiction or non-fiction, but it's even better if it’s an award-winning book.Based on the book club at Paris’ Le Carmen nightclub, this will be an evening of beloved books, passionate conversation, wine and cheese – what could be better on a winter evening?
A panel of award-winning writers and industry expects will briefly discuss their favourite award-winning books.
This event is part of the The Book Stack series.
Thursday 11 July, 6.00 PM
Talk: Out of the Vaults: Celebrating NAIDOC Week
The Library’s Indigenous Unit will display and discuss some of the surprising and interesting items uncovered during the Library’s eRecords project. There will also be highlights from new collections that give a remarkable insight into the Aboriginal experience in NSW. Join Indigenous Services Librarians Ronald Briggs and Melissa Jackson for a glimpse into this rarely seen collection.This event is part of the Out of the Vaults series.
Wednesday 17 July, 9.00 AM
Seminar: Brave New Worlds: Libraries, Learning & Community Needs
How can libraries better understand and use their capabilities in literacy and learning? How can they best take advantage of their autonomy and status as trusted public institutions?How can they work most effectively with partner organisations, non-profits and teachers to drive change?
Thursday 18 July, 6.30 PM
Talk: Walkley Media Talks: The Misogyny Factor - Sex, Politics and Rhetoric
What exactly is the misogyny factor and how does it reveal itself? How are sexism and misogyny different and why are they both still factors in contemporary Australian life? What has the reaction to the death of Margaret Thatcher taught us about the attitude towards women in power and will having a woman in the top job in Australia ever be normalised? Has coverage of politic and current affairs in the Australian media in recent years helped or hindered perpetuators of sexism and what role has social media played in pushing the issue to the forefront of public debate?
Join our fabulous award-winning authors Dr Anne Summers and Catherine Fox in conversation on sex, politics and rhetoric.
This event is part of the Walkley Media Talks series.
Saturday 20 July, 1.00 PM
Talk: People Like Us: The Politics of Difference
Difference, whether social, cultural or physical is all too easily devalued; it is often further deformed by stereotyping the subjects as individuals or groups. Over the afternoon speakers, including Caroline Overington, Judith Brett and Devleena Ghosh, will examine the process of ‘othering’ in a number of contexts such as migration, politics and disability, and from a historical perspective. A collaboration with the NSW Chapter of the Independent Scholars of Australia.
Tuesday 23 July, 6.00 PM
Talk: Slide Night Panel with Steve Dupont and Kate Geraghty with MC Kate McClymont
Rwanda, Iraq, the Bali bombings, Lebanon and Afghanistan renowned Australian photojournalists Stephen Dupont and Kate Geraghty will tell you first-hand what it’s like to work in conflict zones where your only weapons are your camera and the truth. The MC for the evening is award-winning Sydney Morning Herald journalist Kate McClymont. After Dupont’s and Geraghty’s presentation you can ask all three about their exciting work.In association with the Photos 1440 exhibition.
Wednesday 24 July, 6.00 PM
Talk: Susannah Fullerton: Pride & Prejudice, 200th Anniversary
Thursday 25 July, 6.00 PM
Talk: By the Book
If you had to choose four books that changed your life, what would they be?
There are certain books that change the way we think about the world or even how we see ourselves. These are the books that we want to share with everyone who will listen!
Benjamin Law joins us for the next installment of By the Book nominating the four books that changed his life. Benjamin is the author of two books: The Family Law (2010) and Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East (2012). Both books have been nominated for Australian Book Industry Awards. He also contributes frequently to Good Weekend, frankie, The Monthly and Qweekend.
Ben’s titles will be available for sale at the Library bookshop
This event is part of the By the Book series.
Tuesday 30 July, 6.00 PM
Talk: Sydney Seminar: Professor Warren Montag ‘Conversion and Martyrdom’
According to Spinoza, societies form through a mechanism of imitation. People involuntarily mimic the emotions of the others. This sharing of feelings means that the individual is always related to others. Much of Part IV of the Ethics concerns how the imitation of hatred produces selfhatred. This stages an encounter with two important forms of self-hatred: conversion and martyrdom. Warren Montag, the Brown Family Professor of Literature at Occidental College in Los Angeles, is the author of books on Spinoza and Althusser. For more information, please visit: www.sydneyseminar.org
Wednesday 31 July, 6.00 PM
Talk: The not so simple art of murder
When Raymond Chandler wrote his seminal essay, The Simple Art of Murder, he exhorted the use of realist crime fiction that dealt with murder as a serious topic in order to create art. Today crime fiction has never been more popular, but how true to Chandler’s vision is the contemporary genre with its insatiable appetite for the murder of women? At what point does gritty become gross? At what point does crime fiction become horror?
Join three fantastic authors PM Newton , Malla Nunn and Anne Summers as they discuss these issues within contemporary crime fiction.
Monday 5 August, 11.00 AM
Special event: National Biography Awards Presentation 2013
Join us for the announcement of the winner of the National Biography Award, Australia’s richest prize for biographical writing and memoir. Established in 1996 to encourage the highest standards of writing in biography and autobiography, this award also promotes public interest in these genres.
The award is administered and presented by the State Library of New South Wales on behalf of the award’s benefactors, Dr Geoffrey Cains and Mr Michael Crouch AO, and the State Library Foundation.
Tuesday 6 August, 11.00 AM
Talk: Scholarly Musing - Dr. Julie McIntyre
For the first time, First Vintage provides a context for wine growing in the early Australian imaginary, beginning with the planting of wine grape plants at First Government House, Circular Quay in 1788 through to the boom in wine growing in New South Wales a hundred years later.
Tuesday 13 August, 6.00 PM
Talk: Our Kids & Violence: A Next 200 Dialogue with Professor Louise Newman AM
What changes do we want for Australia’s future? Find out at the Benevolent Society’s Next 200 Dialogues a series of public talks on contemporary social issues. If a civilised society is judged by how it treats its children, how does Australia measure up? Join Professor Louise Newman AM, an expert in infant psychiatry and parental mental health issues, in conversation with Natasha Mitchell, presenter of ABC Radio National’s Life Matters, to explore the impact of family violence on babies and young children, how it affects their brains and the implications for later life.
Wednesday 14 August, 12.30 PM
Talk: Bitesize author talk with Will Davies
Will Davis is the acclaimed author of Somme Mud, In the Footsteps of Private Lynch and Beneath Hill 60. His new story, The Boy Colonel is the sad and tragic story of Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Marks. This gallant, highly decorated and promising young man was the youngest battalion commander in the AIF and highly regarded not only as a future military commander, but as a business and community leader. Hear Will Davies talk about this man, his writing and meticulous research in our latest bitesize lunchtime talk.
Wednesday 14 August, 5.30 PM
Talk: National Anthems: A Route to Identity
Across cultures, both the music and words of national anthems are directed to arousing patriotic sensibilities. They are meant to be stirring, to generate a sense of national unity and belonging. Do they reflect a national spirit and how is this achieved? Do they speak for all citizens? What are the occasions on which they are played? Richard Gill and Joseph Toltz will examine a number of national anthems with these and other questions in mind. A collaboration with the NSW Chapter of the Independent Scholars Association of Australia.
Thursday 22 August, 6.00 PM
Talk: Sydney Pen Lecture Series: Tim Soutphomasane
Sydney PEN, an affiliate of PEN International, is an association of Australian writers and readers, publishers and human rights activists. Sydney PEN defends freedom of expression and campaigns on behalf of writers, particularly in the Asia and Pacific region, who have been silenced by political persecution or imprisonment. The Free Voices series is supported by the Copyright Agency Ltd Cultural Fund.
Dr Tim Soutphommasane is a political philosopher and postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, the University of Sydney. His recent books include Don’t Go Back To Where You Came From and The Virtuous Citizen.
Tuesday 3 September, 11.00 AM
Talk: Scholarly Musing - Mr. Patrick Dodd
Patrick is a Volunteer Guide and Public Speaker at the Library and travelled with 'The Governor' exhibition to reginal NSW. He has followed in the footsteps of the Governor Macquarie to the Cowpastures, the Illawarra, the Hawkesbury, Lake George, Bathurst, Port Macquarie and Tasmania and still wonders when the Governor had time to sleep.
Tuesday 1 October, 11.00 AM
Talk: Scholarly Musing - Dr. Rosemary Kerr
Roads are dynamic spaces, culturally constructed and invested with multiple layers of meaning and symbolism which reach far beyond their physical and utilitarian elements. As such, roads can reveal much about the cultures that produce them. In this paper, based on her doctoral thesis, Rosemary Kerr explores how ‘the road’, as a physical and cultural space beyond the urban fringe, has been imagined, experienced and represented in Australia from the late nineteenth century to the present.
Thursday 17 October, 6.00 PM
Talk: Colin Simpson Memorial Lecture
Presented by the Australian Society of Authors, award-winning Australian Aboriginal author and speaker Melissa Lucashenko will deliver the prestigious Colin Simpson Memorial Lecture in 2013. Lucashenko will examine what it means to be an Indigenous author in contemporary Australian society and outline what needs to be done to support the creation and distribution of works by Indigenous authors in Australia.
Tuesday 12 November, 11.00 AM
