Moshin Hamid Delivering Keynote Address at Loyola Hanway Lecture

BALTIMORE – Mohsin Hamid, award-winning author of Exit West, will deliver the 2019 Hanway Lecture in Global Studies and the Humanities Symposium Keynote Address, Monday, Mar. 18, at 7 p.m. at Loyola University Maryland-McGuire Hall (Andrew White Student Center, 4501 North Charles St., Baltimore, Md. 21210).

Free and open to the region’s academic communities and the general public, the lecture is titled, “Rite/Right of Passage: Migration and Movement in Exit West."

With emigration and refugee problems as the main themes, Exit West is the epic tale of Nadia and Saeed, two young people whose love affair unfolds against the backdrop of civil war, drone-filled skies and shifting national borders. Garnering rave reviews, the novel won the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and the Aspen Words Literary Prize, was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was named among the Ten Best Books of 2017, New York Times Book Review.

After growing up in Pakistan and California, Hamid attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School. He worked in New York and London as a management consultant before returning to Pakistan to pursue writing. His honors include winning the Betty Trask Award, being a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway award, and being shortlisted for the Man Booker twice. In 2013, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the world’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers. His other novels include Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia and Discontent and Its Civilizations.

“Exit West is a politically timely text that combines urgent inquiry with captivating storytelling. Moshin Hamid’s humanitarian vision explores the links between geography and destiny; it reminds us that we are all ‘migrants through time,’” said Amanda M. Thomas, Ph.D., provost and vice president for academic affairs. "We are honored and delighted to welcome Mohsin Hamid to our campus and we hope many members of our Baltimore community will join us for his visit."

Tickets to the Hanway Lecture are required by registering at https://www.loyola.edu/join-us/hanway-lecture. For more information, email academicevents@loyola.edu.

Approximately 45 Loyola professors are currently using the Exit West text in their classes, and many Loyola students are also observing the issues addressed in the novel while volunteering through Loyola's Center for Community Service and Justice.

“Like the novel's protagonists, Baltimore’s refugee and asylee populations are victims of civil war, shifting national borders, mass migration and culture shock,” said History Professor Elizabeth Schmidt. “They have become a part of Baltimore – and thus, Loyola's world...Issues of love, faith, and compassion arise here as well.”

Loyola students are volunteering with Baltimore City Community College's Refugee Youth Project (RYP), an after-school program that seeks to improve the lives of Baltimore’s youngest refugees by supporting their academic needs and making their acculturation simple and meaningful. RYP serves over 300 refugees between the ages of 4 and 21 at 3 sites in Baltimore. Most Loyola volunteers will serve at the Patterson High School site working one-on-one with 10-30 high school students. Loyola students provide homework help and to serve as positive role models and mentors for the RYP students. For more information, visit www.refugeeyouthproject.org.

The students also volunteer with Soccer Without Borders (SWB), a non-profit that provides year-round programming to newcomer youth to help them overcome obstacles that might otherwise inhibit growth, inclusion, and success. SWB utilizes the global power of soccer to create positive life changes through five key programming areas: soccer play and instruction, academic enrichment, civic engagement, team building and cultural exchange. Loyola students serve as academic tutors and assist with the soccer program. Volunteers assist with homework, provide an opportunity to practice English language learning, and engage with students in other fun educational activities. In addition, some volunteers may work as classroom assistants during English lessons. For more information, visit www.soccerwithoutborders.org/b....