Invitation: Department of English Distinguished Lectures by Prof. Hernán Diaz, Prof. Amitav Ghosh and Prof. Carlos Andrés Gomes on 9, 10 & 12 March 2026
Dear Colleagues,
You are cordially invited to the below guest lectures by Prof. Hernán Diaz, Prof. Amitav Ghosh and Prof. Carlos Andrés Gómez on 9, 10 & 12 March 2026 respectively. For details please refer to below or in the attached posters. Thank you.
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Department of English Distinguished Lecture Series
Prof. Hernán Diaz
Trust, Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize
Monday 9 March 2026, 15:00
Venue: E12-G003
All are Welcome
Abstract:
In this talk for students and faculty, Hernan Diaz reflects on the making of his fiction, including his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Trust, and the formal experiments that shape his exploration of power, finance, and narrative authority. He discusses how his work interrogates the myths of capitalism and the construction of historical truth, moving between intimate psychological portraits and vast economic systems. Situating these concerns within a global frame, Diaz considers how stories about money, speculation, and ambition resonate far beyond Wall Street, finding echoes in port cities and financial hubs around the world. Turning to Macao and China’s Greater Bay Area, he reflects on the region as a dynamic crossroads of trade, risk, and reinvention, where local histories intersect with planetary flows of capital and culture. Addressing university students and faculty, Diaz invites conversation about archives, translation, and the ethics of representation, proposing literature as a vital space for reimagining our interconnected world.
Biography:
Diaz has a BA in Literature from the University of Buenos Aires; an MA from King’s College, University of London; and a PhD from New York University. He has written for a very wide number of publications, including The Paris Review, Granta, The Yale Review and is the author of three novels, of which Trust, published in 2022, was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He has also written works of non-fiction and collections of short stories. He has won numerous awards, including: First Novelist Award (2018), New American Voices Award (2018), Prix Page America Award (2018) and William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for Fiction (2018). He was also a finalist for PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (2018) and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2018). His 2022 novel, Trust, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2023), Kirkus Prize (2022) and Booker Prize longlist (2022). He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2022 and was given the Whiting Award in 2019.
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Department of English Distinguished Lecture Series
Prof. Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh Speaks About Writing, Macao, and Challenges of the Twenty First Century
Tuesday 10 March 2026, 11:30
Venue: E4-G062
All are Welcome
Abstract:
In this wide-ranging lecture, Amitav Ghosh explores the dynamic interplay between history and literature as intertwined modes of understanding our interconnected world. Drawing on his work across continents and centuries, he reflects on how storytelling recovers silenced pasts, illuminates patterns of migration and trade, and reveals the deep entanglements linking Asia, Africa, and Europe. He considers the Indian Ocean and South China Sea not as distant peripheries but as vibrant corridors of exchange that have long shaped modernity. Turning to China’s Greater Bay Area, he examines how this region embodies both historical continuities and new global aspirations, offering a living laboratory for thinking about urbanization, ecology, and cultural hybridity. Addressed to students and faculty, the talk invites listeners to see literature as a vital companion to historical inquiry—one that expands empathy, sharpens critical awareness, and reimagines global connections in an era of profound planetary change.
Biography:
Amitav Ghosh is one of the leading authors writing in English today and is highly acclaimed for his many novels, essays and works of non-fiction. His interests are wide ranging but his focus in recent years has been particularly on colonialism and also on climate change. Ghosh studied at Delhi University and has a doctorate from Oxford University in Social Anthropology. Amitav Ghosh has won many significant awards, including the Jnanpith Award in 2018, regarded as India’s highest literary honour. Most recently he was awarded The Wise Owl Literary Award in February 2026 for his 2025 book Wild Fictions: Essays.
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Department of English Distinguished Lecture Series
Prof. Carlos Andrés Gómez
Modern Manhood – Imagining Contemporary Masculinity
Thursday 12 March 2026, 15:00
Venue: E21-3118
All are Welcome
Abstract:
In this lecture, Carlos Andrés Gómez reflects on the evolution of his literary work and its sustained engagement with the theme of masculinity in contemporary society. Drawing on selected novels, essays, and short fiction, he explores how his characters grapple with vulnerability, expectation, intimacy, and power, challenging inherited models of manhood while probing the emotional costs of silence and pride. Gómez considers masculinity not as a fixed identity but as a shifting cultural script shaped by family, history, migration, and media. He examines how young men navigate friendship, ambition, and failure in rapidly changing social landscapes, and how literature can open space for more expansive, humane forms of self-understanding. Addressing university students and faculty in Macau, he reflects on the city’s unique blend of traditions and global influences, inviting dialogue about gender, responsibility, and belonging. The talk proposes storytelling as a vital tool for reimagining masculinity with honesty, courage, and care.
Biography:
Carlos Andrés Gómez is a poet and performer and the author of a prize-winning memoir, Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood (Random House Penguin, 2013), poetry collections Fractures (Felix Polak Prize) and Hijito (Broken River Prize). Gómez graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in History and earned his MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Gómez has won more than 100 prizes, honours, and awards as an author, poet, actor, playwright, and filmmaker, including winning the 2024 Yeats International Poetry Prize, 2019 Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry etc.
