Bouncing Back or Bouncing Forward? Shaping a post-pandemic society.

COVID-19 has touched the lives of all of us, and caused many of us to reflect on our way of life. Join us in a conversation with Hugh Mackay AO to explore the lessons we have learnt from the pandemic, and the ways we might change as a result. This is an opportunity to reflect – perhaps to rethink our values, reset our priorities and reconsider the ways we approach our relationships, our work, our institutions. How should we respond to this heightened sense of our interconnectedness?

Hugh Mackay is a social psychologist, researcher and bestselling author of 19 books, including The Good Life, The Art of Belonging and Australia Reimagined. He has had a 60-year career in social research, and was also a weekly newspaper columnist for over 25 years. Among many honorary appointments, he has been deputy chairman of the Australia Council for the Arts, chairman of trustees of Sydney Grammar School, the inaugural chairman of the ACT government’s Community Inclusion Board and an honorary professor at Macquarie, Wollongong and Charles Sturt universities. He is currently a patron of the Asylum Seekers Centre Hugh is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and of the Royal Society of NSW. In recognition of his pioneering work in social research, he has been awarded honorary doctorates by Charles Sturt, Macquarie, NSW, Western Sydney and Wollongong universities. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2015.