Kamila Shamsie to give the Orwell Lecture 2018

Prospective students Current students - The Orwell Lecture 2018, held annually at UCL, will be delivered by author Kamila Shamsie, on the question of 'citizenship, migration and the transformation of rights into privileges'. The lecture is organised by the Orwell Foundation, which is based at UCL along with the George Orwell Archive. It will consider the cost of recent attempts to move citizenship from 'a protected legal status to a privilege'.  "In the last few years the line 'citizenship is a privilege not a right' has been heard increasingly from the mouths of Home Secretaries and Prime Ministers. Alongside this statement we've seen the increasing expansion in - and use of - the government's powers to strip Britons of their citizenship. What is the cost of this attempt to move citizenship from a protected legal status to a privilege, and does it created a two-tiered system of citizenship?" said Kamia Shamsie, commenting on the topic of her lecture. Kamila is the author of seven novels: In the City by the Sea (shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Salt and Saffron; Kartography (also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Broken Verses; Burnt Shadows (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction) and A God in Every Stone, which was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Home Fire was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award, and won the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018.