Writing Fictional History - Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire

In his recent DK and Lucasfilm licensed book Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, Dr Chris Kempshall wrote a historical investigation and analysis of the Galactic Empire based around fictitious events, designed for an 'in-universe' audience. Join Dr Ann-Marie Foster and Dr Julia Ribeiro Thomaz to quiz Chris about how he approached writing a fictional history as an academic historian. We will probe what skills, ideas, and approaches he used to transfer his real-world background to a fictional universe, and ask how through his sci-fi writing he has helped develop public understandings of what historians do.

Speaker information:

• Dr Ann-Marie Foster is a historian of modern Britain with interests in public history, war studies, and cultural heritage. Ann-Marie is currently a Chancellor's Fellow at Robert Gordon University and PI on the project AHRC ECR Fellow in Cultural and Heritage Institutions project 'Accessible Pasts, Equitable Futures', based at Imperial War Museums.
• Dr Julia Ribeiro Thomaz is a Historian of France and Literary Scholar whose work incorporates Anthropology and the Digital Humanities to interrogate poetry as a shared cultural practice that is part of the experience of war. She is a Visiting Fellow in Digital Humanities at the School of Advanced Study and a member of the Digital Humanities project Poésie Grande Guerre. 
• Dr Chris Kempshall is a public historian and author who specialises both in transnational experiences of warfare and modern media representations of history; predominantly computer games and the Star Wars franchise. Alongside The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire he also co-authored the licensed book Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy in 2021. He is currently the President for the International Society for First World War Studies and a Senior Research Fellow for the Centre for Army Leadership, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

This event is free to attend, but booking is required.