The Global Cultures Institute and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project India and the Indian Ocean in the Early Decolonial Period: Archipelagic Imaginaries, 1950s-1970s (IATIO) welcome the world-renowned author Amitav Ghosh to present the Institute's 2024-25 Annual Lecture and mark the end of the IATIO project.

Amitav Ghosh is the premier storyteller of the Indian Ocean world. From In An Antique Land (1992) to his latest book, Smoke and Ashes (2024), his fiction and non-fiction writing has experimented with narrative and genre to shed light on the connections and continuities in and across the Indian Ocean (and beyond); his novels (especially the Ibis trilogy, 2008-2015) have brought to life the region’s varied cosmopolitan worlds. Drawing from the author’s extensive oeuvre, this event explores the role of imagination in rethinking modes of relation between peoples and cultures, addressing themes of cultural and historical connections on a global scale, with a focus on India’s history of empire, capitalism, migration and mobility in the Indian Ocean region.

Dr Ghosh’s talk will be followed by a conversation between the author and Professor Ananya Jahanara Kabir, FBA (IATIO project supervisor), directed by IATIO postdoctoral fellow Dr Luca Raimondi, who will introduce the speaker. A 30 minute Q&A with the audience will follow.

The event is organised jointly by the Global Cultures Institute and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project IATIO, with support from King’s India Institute.

The Global Cultures Institute is housed in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and aims to foster interdisciplinary conversations that explore cultural boundaries and how these might be shaped, adjusted and overcome.

IATIO (India and the Indian Ocean in the Early Decolonial Period: Archipelagic Imaginaries, 1950s-1970s) is a three-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie research project funded by the European Commission that examines the cultural and literary manifestations of India’s investment with the Indian Ocean region from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The King’s India Institute is a global leading centre for multi-disciplinary research, teaching and public engagement on contemporary India.

About the speaker

Amitav Ghosh is a prize-winning author of fiction and non-fiction. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages and include the novels The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, the Ibis trilogy, consisting of Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire, and his latest novel, Gun Island. His works of non-fiction include In An Antique Land, The Great Derangement; Climate Change and the Unthinkable, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, and his latest book, Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories, released in February 2024. Amitav Ghosh holds two Lifetime Achievement awards and six honorary doctorates. In 2024, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize and was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Read the full bio here or visit the bookshop.

Booking information

Please note, King's events are free, which means we routinely overbook to allow for no-shows and avoid empty seats. Admission is on a first come, first served basis, so please arrive in good time to avoid disappointment. We will not be able to admit those without tickets. If you book a ticket but find you are unable to come to the event, please kindly cancel your booking.

This event is in-person only. The evening may be filmed and photographed, by attending you consent to appearing in any footage or stills of the event.

This event is wheelchair accessible. To inform the organiser of any access requirements, please email gci@kcl.ac.uk.

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