Masha Gessen (2024) - The War of the Narratives

Festival of Dangerous Ideas

In an age of creeping authoritarianism, anyone who questions the logic of competing narratives when it comes to historical conflicts risks being silenced. Russian American journalist Masha Gessen says however, in order to learn from history we have to question our world and recognise the signs of when we're sliding into darkness.

Gessen examines how the intersection of history, memory, propaganda and censorship enforces the narratives of today – and what happens when narrative becomes dogma.

Masha Gessen is an opinion columnist for The New York Times and a Distinguished Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. They have written extensively on The Russian-Ukrainian war, Israel/Palestine, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump. They have won numerous awards, including the George Polk Award, the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thinking, and the National Book Award.

Chaired by journalist Hamish Macdonald.