Historian Marnie Hughes-Warrington of Macquarie University, who teaches “big history” as well as world history, has been selected for the 2008 Prime Minister’s University Teacher of the Year award.
“You become a better researcher when you engage with students and they ask you questions and show you things you hadn’t thought about before,” she said.

In turn, she challenged her first-year students by giving them an unexpected departure point for an introduction to history.

“It starts 13.7 billion years ago; they turn up expecting a class on human beings and they get a lecture on the big bang,” she said.