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Is storytelling essential to innovation?
If we can define the elements of a breakthrough, can we engineer the next great discovery in business, science, policy and civic life? Join a conversation with Sophie Gee, Charlotte Wood, Stephen Simpson and Kate Harrison Brennan.
Major innovations make for great stories when they succeed but could breakthroughs happen in the first place without stories and creative leaps to shape ideas and guide collaborations?
In this Sydney Ideas event, hear insights from the University of Sydney’s inaugural Vice-Chancellor Fellow and Princeton professor Sophie Gee; celebrated writer Charlotte Wood, the first Australian to be shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize since 2014; Charles Perkins Centre Academic Director Stephen Simpson; and Sydney Policy Lab Director Kate Harrison Brennan.
As award-winning novelists, scientists and policymakers, they use creative narratives to push boundaries and work to understand how change happens. It’s led to the insight that world-changing breakthroughs and great stories share the same surprising ingredients: contingency, serendipity, curiosity, generosity and friendship. Learn how to accelerate your next breakthrough by telling the story of your big ideas.
This event was held on Tuesday 26 November at the University of Sydney, presented with Sydney Policy Lab and Charles Perkins Centre.
The speakers
Professor Sophie Gee, Princeton University and University of Sydney
Sophie is a professor in the English Department at Princeton University and currently a Vice-Chancellor Fellow at the University of Sydney. She's a novelist, journalist and scholar and her most recent book is a history of 18th century novels, eating rituals and empire called The Barbarous Feast (forthcoming from Princeton University Press). Sophie is producer and co-host of the Secret Life of Books, a podcast about classic books.
Professor Stephen Simpson AC, Charles Perkins Centre
Stephen is Academic Director of Charles Perkins Centre, and a Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, and Executive Director of Obesity Australia. His most recent book, co-authored with Professor David Raubenheimer. is Eat Like the Animals (HarperCollins), a story of scientific discovery and the power of the unexpected.
Pictured: Charlotte Wood. Photo credit: Henry Simmons
Charlotte Wood AO, novelist
Charlotte is the author of seven novels and three books of non-fiction. Her new book Stone Yard Devotional has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, described by Guardian UK as ‘a quiet novel of immense power’, and praised by authors Anne Enright, Tim Winton, Karen Joy Fowler, Hannah Kent and Paula Hawkins among others.
Host: Dr Kate Harrison Brennan, Sydney Policy Lab
Kate is the Director of the Sydney Policy Lab. As the former Head of Policy and Design at the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Kate has seen the positive impact of good policy and partnerships to help to break cycles of disadvantage across Australia. Prior to this, she was CEO of Anglican Deaconess Ministries and Founder of a storytelling tech-start-up. In government, Kate was an adviser to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Before joining the Office of the Prime Minister, she was Director of Strategic Communications and Global Affairs at the Australian Consulate-General in New York. Kate is a graduate of the University of Sydney and a NSW Rhodes scholar. She serves on the Board of World Vision Australia.
Header image: Getty via Unsplash