Gary Younge, Professor of Sociology at The University of Manchester and award-winning author and broadcaster, has been chosen by publishers Faber to deliver their first ever Faber lecture.

Titled Pigeonholed: Creative freedom as an act of resistance, the lecture is an incisive and moving exploration of what has been called ‘the burden of representation’. This term refers to the pressures exerted on the relatively small group of people from underrepresented communities who break through into elite spaces, and the expectations that may come from above, below and from those in power and those without.

These are issues that have framed, frustrated, inspired and inflected his entire working life as a writer. Sharing his experiences, Younge offers reflections on how to navigate representation, power and responsibility whilst keeping your job, your sanity and your freedom both as a human being and as a writer.

Gary Younge gave the second reading of ‘Pigeonholed’ on Thursday 16 October 2025 at The Friends’ Meeting House. The text of the lecture is available as a printed pamphlet, signed by the author.

Launched in May 2025 at London’s Conway Hall to mark the tenth anniversary of the Faber Members programme, the Faber Lecture provides an invited author with a platform to explore essential ideas that are at the intersection of creativity and culture. This second reading of the lecture is in partnership with the University of Manchester, the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity, Manchester Literature Festival and Creative Manchester.

Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester gave a welcome at the lecture, and Claire Alexander, Head of the School of Social Sciences at The University of Manchester chaired the audience Q&A after the lecture.

About Gary Younge

Gary Younge is an award-winning author, broadcaster and professor of sociology at the University of Manchester. Formerly a columnist and an editor-at-large at the Guardian, he is an editorial board member of The Nation magazine. He is the author of five books, including Another Day in the Death of America (shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Jhalak Prize); his writing has appeared in Granta, the New York Times, the Financial Times, GQ, the New Statesman and beyond, and he has made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit. Younge received the 2023 Orwell Prize for Journalism. In 2025 he received the prestigious Robert B. Silvers Award in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the field of journalism.