Swenson to deliver lecture Nov. 20
Posted by Velvet Hasner
Dr. Kristine Swenson will present her research in a talk titled “Mapping Imperial Skulls: Phrenological Fictions and Race” 3-4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, in the Meramec-Gasconade Room of the Havener Center. Swenson is professor and chair of English and technical communication. Her talk is part of the Sigma Tau Delta brown bag series.
The abstract is:
“Why did phrenology, the ‘science’ of reading the shape and size of a person’s skull, hang on so much longer in imperial contexts than in metropolitan ones? How does understanding phrenology influence our reading of literary and visual texts as well as science in the Victorian period and later? What were those heads doing on the stakes around Kurtz’s hut in Heart of Darkness?”
Posted by Velvet Hasner
