Winton Higgins - Ambivalence

Name: Winton Higgins - Ambivalence
Start: 2026-09-09T18:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-09-09T18:00:00+10:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

6pm for 6.30pm Wednesday 9 September

Winton Higgins in conversation with Andy Leigh

We read a lot about the supposedly spoiled and self-obsessed Boomer generation, but what of the generation that preceded it? In "Ambivalence: glimpses of an Australian life" we hear the voice of that earlier generation, one that follows the arc of the country’s social and ethical development from the last throes of World War II to the present day.

This historical witness embraces many spheres of Australian life, from outback goldmining and pastoralism, through urban legal practice, to work in academic social science. The author benchmarks his own country’s development with Scandinavian counterparts he explores.

Throughout this personal and eventful journey the author strains to square his love of country with his unflinching insights into its major shortcomings – in its treatment of its Indigenous people, its failure to uphold its earlier egalitarianism, its environmental backwardness, and the dubious company it keeps in global affairs.

Winton Higgins is a writer and academic. He was born to a Tennant Creek (Northern Territory) family in 1941. After briefly practising at the NSW Bar, he changed careers to research, write and teach in the social sciences at Macquarie University and the University of Technology Sydney. He also gained valuable experience and perspective on sabbaticals in three research institutes in Stockholm. Apart from his academic publications Winton has published a travel diary "Journey into Darkness", 2003 and two historical novels "Rule of Law", 2016; and "Love Death Chariot of Fire", 2020 all published by Brandl & Schlesinger, as well as two books on secular Buddhism.

Professor Andy Leigh is a plant ecologist at the University of Technology Sydney. Her teaching and research explores how plants cope with heat extremes, especially in desert environments, where plants live on the edge of biological tolerance and survival. She is privileged to be working with Anangu, First Nations Custodians of Uluru-Kata Tjuta, in Australia’s red centre, bringing together western science research with Indigenous ecological knowledges to understand how Country is responding to climate change. Supporting (and interwoven with) Andy’s ecological career for the last 20 years has been her Buddhist practice in the insight and secular frameworks.