NOBODY BELONGS
Belonging is rarely innocent. It draws borders, demands recognition and determines who is included – and who is cast out. For some, it is easy to belong. For others, it is a constant struggle to conform with the expectations of others. In what kind of world can it be that the ‘the cost of belonging’ is that we remake ourselves in the image of others?
Jesse Bering [USA]
Jesse Bering is a science writer, research psychologist, and head of the Science Communication program at the University of Otago in New Zealand. He is the author of The Belief Instinct: Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? And Other Reflections on Being Human, Perv, and A Very Human Ending. His writing has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Discover, The Guardian, The New Republic, The New York Times, Playboy, Scientific American, The Telegraph, Slate, Vice, and other outlets. He currently writes a weekly column for the French magazine Le Point. His latest book is The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson: One Scientist’s Epic Quest for Evidence of Reincarnation, Apparitions, Poltergeists, and Other Matters of the Soul.
Kate Holden
Kate Holden is an award-winning author and essayist who has written on sexuality and identity in modern Australian life. She is the author of In My Skin: A Memoir (2005), and The Romantic: Italian Nights and Days (2010). The Winter Road: A Killing in Croppa Creek (2021) won the Walkley Book Award and the NSW Premier’s nonfiction award. Her latest work is The Ruin of Magic: Longing and Belonging in Strange Times.
Neha Kale
Neha Kale is a widely published writer of criticism, journalism, and essay. Her work focuses on art, culture, and society, exploring overlooked narratives and the way history and power shape individual experience. She has contributed to The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, ArtReview, Vogue, the BBC, Griffith Review, and The Sydney Morning Herald, among many others. She is the former editor of VAULT magazine and currently editor-at-large at Art Guide Australia. Her first book Foreign Return: On Art and Inhabitation is out in September with NewSouth.
Amy Thunig-McGregor
Amy Thunig-McGregor is a Gomeroi author and academic. A Research Fellow within Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney, and Director at Story Factory, Amy’s first book Tell Me Again: A Memoir (UQP) was shortlisted for numerous State and National awards. Amy contributes on various councils and committees including the AECG, has delivered a TEDx talk, and co-curated both the 2023 All About Women Festival and the 2024 Sydney Writer’s Festival. Amy identifies as queer, disabled and neurodivergent.
Tim Dean
Tim Dean is a public philosopher, speaker and writer. He has a Doctorate in philosophy from UNSW Sydney on the evolution of morality and specialises in public philosophy, ethics and critical thinking. He is an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney and the author of How We Became Human. He is also an experienced science writer and editor and has worked for outlets such as The Conversation and edited magazines including Cosmos and Australian Life Scientist. He is the recipient of the Australasian Association of Philosophy Media Professionals’ Award for his work on philosophy in the public sphere. He is currently Senior Philosopher and Manos Chair in Ethics at The Ethics Centre.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation - the custodians of the country on which we meet - and acknowledge their Elders, past and present.
The views and opinions expressed by the Festival participants are not necessarily the views of The Ethics Centre and our partners.