Expanding Statelessness Scholarship new  people have been living outside of legal nationality and beyond the reach of governments since the birth of our state-centric international system  but the meaning and impacts associated with lack of legal nationality are wholly modern. Legal nationality is used as a prerequisite for enjoying fundamental rights: from attending school to going to the doctor, from voting in elections to protesting unfair policies, from working legally to crossing borders. Further, citizenship often marks friend from enemy, ‘us’ versus ‘them’, in contentious debates about identity and belonging. It is legal status, but it is also a marker of membership that extends far beyond ID cards. The power of legal nationality explains why denationalisation is increasingly used as a weapon against those deemed threats to the state, 18 just as citizenship is used as a reward for those seen as extraordinary. 19 Therefore, my advice in this discussion is not to necessarily abandon the concept of ‘statelessness studies’, but rather to undertake this scholarship and advocacy with full recognition that statelessness is complicated. It cannot be neatly categorized within any academic discipline or assigned any one-size-fits all ‘solution.’ In order to move this conversation forward, we must resist the urge to narrow our focus and constrict our scholarly explorations. Indeed, the growing support and enthusiasm for studying statelessness means that we finally have the political and academic space to dig deeper and engage with this issue in important, impactful and diverse ways. This, my friends and colleagues, is where things get interesting. 18 19 See, eg, Nisha Kapoor, Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism (Verso 2018). French President Emmanuel Macron promised Malian migrant Mamoudou Gassama citizenship in 2018, for instance, in recognition of his extraordinary heroics. Nicknamed ‘Spider Man,’ Gassama climbed four stories to save a child dangling from the balcony of a Paris flat. Kim Willsher, ‘“Spider-Man” of Paris to Get French citizenship after child rescue’ The Guardian (29 May 2018) <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/28/spiderman-of-paris-to-get-french-citizenship-after-rescuing-child>. 169