Join us in person for the launch and discussion of the English translation of Kübra Gümüşay's bestselling book Speaking and Being, How Language Binds and Frees Us, translated by Gesche Ipsen and published by Profile Books (2022).

What happens when our language is no longer fit for purpose, and how we can change the discourse? Language opens up our world, and in the same instant, limits it. What does it mean to exist in a language that was never meant for you to speak? Why are we missing certain words? How can we talk about our communal problems without fuelling them? What does it actually mean to speak freely?

As a writer and activist fighting for equality, Kübra Gümüşay has been thinking about these questions for many years. In this book she explores how language shapes our thinking and determines our politics. She shows how people become invisible as individuals when they are always seen as part of a group, and the way those in the minority often have to expend energy cleaning up the messy thinking of others. But she also points to how we might shape conversations to allow for greater ambiguity and individuality, how arguments might happen in a space of learning and vulnerability without sacrificing principles - how we might all be able to speak freely.

The ANU Centre for European Studies is hosting this event alongside Harry Hartog at ANU, who will be providing copies of the book for purchase. Kübra Gümüşay will join us virtually for an interview and Q&A with the audience.

This event will be held as part of our research project Policy, Politics, Culture: EU Migration and Integration (PPCEUMI), focused on the study of third-country migrant integration in the EU through the lenses of politics, policy, governance, and culture.