Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture at the University of Warwick

18/04/2025

Coming soon! Book your place now.

10/11/2023

Just 4 more days to go! Register here if you want to attend in person: https://warwick.ac.uk/.../research/edwardsaid/register2023

31/10/2023

At Warwick, on Nov 15. Delivering the Edward Said Memorial Lecture.

“I just want to write as trustfully as I can, without trying to say something noble."

Abdulrazak Gurnah - awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature - was born in 1948 and grew up on the island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean but arrived in England as a refugee at the end of the 1960s. After the peaceful liberation from British colonial rule in December 1963, Zanzibar went through a revolution which, under President Abeid Karume’s regime, led to oppression and persecution of citizens of Arab origin; massacres occurred. Gurnah belonged to the victimised ethnic group and after finishing school was forced to leave his family and flee the country, by then the newly formed Republic of Tanzania. He was eighteen years old. Not until 1984 was it possible for him to return to Zanzibar, allowing him to see his father shortly before the father’s death.

In his work, Gurnah’s dedication to truth and his aversion to simplification are striking. This can make him bleak and uncompromising, at the same time as he follows the fates of individuals with great compassion and unbending commitment. His novels recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world. In Gurnah’s literary universe, everything is shifting – memories, names, identities. This is probably because his project cannot reach completion in any definitive sense. An unending exploration driven by intellectual passion is present in all his books, and equally prominent now, in 'Afterlives', as when he began writing as a 21-year-old refugee.

Learn more about the 2021 literature laureate: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2021/bio-bibliography/

17/10/2023

Announcing the 19th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture at the University of Warwick, hosted by the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. In these horrific times, remembering Said seems all the more urgent and important. We look forward to seeing you there!

04/05/2023

Prof Adam Hanieh delivered a magisterial talk at the 18th Annual Edward Said Memorial lecture yesterday! Stay tuned for the recording which will be uploaded soon.

03/05/2023

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/18th-annual-edward-said-memorial-lecture-by-adam-hanieh-tickets-617147253047

"A Contrapuntal Reading of the Anthropocene: Knowledge Production and Absences in the History of World Oil" (HYBRID EVENT)

03/05/2023

And in just a few hours, Adam Hanieh will deliver the 18th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture at the University of Warwick Will be great to see Warwick colleagues in person. For all others, here is the registration link that will take you to the online event page:

"A Contrapuntal Reading of the Anthropocene: Knowledge Production and Absences in the History of World Oil" (HYBRID EVENT)

27/04/2023

If you missed the 17th Edward Said Memorial lecture by Prof. David Palumbo-Liu on "Human, and Other Rights", you can catch it here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/research/edwardsaid/17th/

24/04/2023

Please join us for the 18th Annual Edward Said Memorial lecture by Adam Hanieh. Register here:

"A Contrapuntal Reading of the Anthropocene: Knowledge Production and Absences in the History of World Oil" (HYBRID EVENT)

23/04/2023

Welcome to the Edward Said Memorial lecture page. Following his death in 2003, the Department of English and Comparative Studies at the University of Warwick inaugurated an annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture to honour the prominent literary scholar and renowned public intellectual.

Said understood criticism to be a 'humanistic activity' encompassing 'erudition and sympathy', sensitivity to 'inner tensions', and an openness to imponderables and mysteries. His own finely-tuned responsiveness to the singularity of any piece of writing with which he engaged, is evident in his innovative and surprising interpretations of both canonical and marginalised literature.

These same writings also register the obligation felt by Said to make visible the actual affiliations that exist between 'the world of ideas and scholarship on the one hand, and the world of brute politics, corporate and state power, and military force on the other.'

The University of Warwick had twice hosted visits from Edward Said. In 1994 the Department of English together with the Department of Philosophy held an International Conference on his work and the work this has generated. Papers presented at this conference were later published as Cultural Readings of Imperialism: Edward Said and the Gravity of History, ed. Keith Ansell Pearson, Benita Parry and Judith Squires (1997). In 2001 Said received an Honorary Degree. On both occasions his crowded lectures revealed his singular ability to bring politics to scholarship and scholarship to politics.

This annual lecture is free and open to the public.