Why are we obsessed by identity? A keynote and conversation with Kenan Malik

Why are we obsessed by identity? A keynote and conversation with Kenan Malik
Why are we obsessed by identity? A keynote and conversation with Kenan Malik

Why are we obsessed by identity? A keynote and conversation with Kenan Malik

Identity politics has become one of the defining - and divisive - issues of our age. But what do we mean by identity politics? Why have we become so obsessed by questions of identity? And how does the debate about identity relate to the wider debates that now dominate politics, on immigration, populism and diversity?

Bestselling author, journalist and commentator, Kenan Malik, unpicks the arguments around the politics of identity, tells its forgotten history, challenges the arguments of both right and left, and upends much of what we think we know of both our politics and our identities.

After his keynote Kenan will be in conversation with writer and cultural historian Luke Stegemann.

This event is presented as part of Griffith University's Integrity 20 program.

About Kenan Malik

Kenan has presented Analysis, on BBC Radio 4, and Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3's wonderful arts and ideas programme and The Moral Maze. He has written and presented a number of radio and TV documentaries including Disunited Kingdom, Are Muslims Hated?, Islam, Mullahs and the Media, Skullduggery and Man, Beast and Politics.

His most recent book is The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics, published by Atlantic. Previous books include Multiculturalism and its Discontents: Rethinking Diversity After 9/11, From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy, Strange Fruit: Why Both Sides are Wrong in the Race Debate, Man, Beast and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell Us About Human Nature and The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society.

He studied neurobiology (at the University of Sussex) and history and philosophy of science (at Imperial College, London) and has lectured at a number of universities in Britain, Europe, Australia and the USA.
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