Amelia Gentleman: The Windrush Scandal - Is It Over?
Wednesday, November 18, 2020Online Lecture
12:30 pm CET
The talk will take participants through the Guardian investigation which uncovered how the UK government had mistakenly classified thousands of its own citizens as illegal immigrants, with catastrophic and life-shattering consequences for many of them. Some were arrested, detained and deported to countries they had left as children half a century earlier. Others were sacked from their jobs, made homeless or denied access to free medical care under the National Health System. The investigation resulted in the resignation of the Home Secretary and promises of comprehensive reform. Two years on, many of those affected are still waiting for compensation and the reform of the Home Office has yet to happen. Amelia Gentleman will discuss why that change has not yet materialized.
Please check out the feature on Amelia Gentleman's book on the Windrush Scandal on Deutschlandfunk>> (in German)
Amelia Gentleman is a reporter for The Guardian. Her book The Windrush Betrayal. Exposing the Hostile Environment (Guardian Faber, 2019) was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford prize in 2019.
Gentleman has won numerous prizes (selection):
2019
The Cudlipp award for the Windrush investigation
The Amnesty impact award for the Windrush investigation
Print Journalist of the Year, London Press Club
Sue Lloyd Roberts Media Award, in association with UNHCR and Migrants Organise
Best Campaigning/Investigative Journalism, Drum Online Media Awards
2018
Paul Foot Award
Political Studies Association Journalist of the Year (joint award with Carole Cadwalladr)
Journalist of the Year, British Journalism Awards
The event is moderated by BCB Professor of Literature Laura Scuriatti. Please send an email to her in order to attend.
This lecture is part of the lecture series on Migration in Global History that is taking place within the framework of the Mellon sponsored Consortium of Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education.
More upcoming Events:
November 25, 11.00 am CET :
Omar Kasmani (Free University): "Audible Intimacies: Migrant Saints in a Godless City"
Moderated by Agata Lisiak
December 1, 2.00 pm CET:
Anguezomo Mba Bikoro (Artist): "On The Ruins Of Paradise: Archival Legacies of Women's Movements in Colonial Empire'"
Moderated by Fatin Abbas
December 8, 10.45 am CET:
Joshua Craze (Writer): "'There are no whole lives': Exile, Fiction, and Bureaucracy in the UNHCR Archive"
Moderated by Aaron Tugendhaft
Email: [email protected]