Gary Younge & Sadiah Qureshi in Conversation

Cost: Free and open to the public, but booking required. If you would like to attend, please sign up on the form by 16:00 on Monday 16 June.

Event Abstract:
Anyone alive today is among a tiny fraction of the once living: over 90% of species that ever existed are now extinct. How did we come to think of ourselves as survivors in a world where species can vanish forever, or as capable of pushing our planet to the verge of a sixth mass extinction? Join us for an event exploring these questions with Gary Younge in conversation with Sadiah Qureshi to mark the launch of her new book Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction published by Penguin Press.Exploring the tangled and unnatural histories of extinction and empire, this event will discuss how extinction is a political choice that has led to devastating consequences. It will explore how histories of extinction offer important lessons for illuminating our past and choosing a better future.You can read full details of the book here:  https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/309254/vanished-by-qureshi-sadiah/9780241352106Attendees will also have the opportunity to purchase signed copies of the book at the event.

Speaker Biographies:

Gary Younge is an award-winning author, broadcaster and a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester in England. Formerly a columnist at The Guardian he is an editorial board member of the Nation magazine. In 2025 he won the Robert B. Silvers Prize for Journalism and in 2023 was awarded the 2023 Orwell Prize for Journalism. He has written six books, most recently  Dispatches From the Diaspora, From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter. His essay, "Pigeonholed: Creative Freedom as an act of resistance, will be published by Faber In May 2025. He has also written for The New York Review of Books, Granta, GQ, The Financial Times and The New Statesman and made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit.

Sadiah Qureshi is Professor of Modern British History at the University of Manchester. She is a prize-winning historian of science, race, and empire. Her research explores how the very notion of extinction emerged, and shaped our understanding of life on earth, genocide, and empire within the Anthropocene. She has written for the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and New Statesman. She cannot bear the thought of living in a world without birdsong, trees or tigers.

The event is being run in collaboration with the KCL Environmental Humanities Network ( https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/environmental-humanities-network )

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