African Atlantics and Imperial Culture: Critical Directions Past, Present and Future

Image taken from page 127 of 'Livingstone and Stanley: the story of the opening up of the Dark Continent, [By Robert Cochrane.] Illustrated' (British Library)

Literature scholar Laura Chrisman gives the 2018–19 Ian Fletcher Memorial Lecture hosted by the Department of English at ASU. The Institute for Humanities Research at ASU is an additional sponsor.

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Laura Chrisman

Laura Chrisman is the Nancy K. Ketcham Endowed Chair of English at the University of Washington, where she teaches African, black diaspora, imperial and postcolonial cultural studies. Book publications include "Postcolonial Contraventions: Cultural Readings of Race, Imperialism and Transnationalism" (MUP, 2003) and "Rereading the Imperial Romance: British Imperialism and South African Resistance in Haggard, Schreiner and Plaatje" (OUP, 2000). She has edited or co-edited books and journal special issues that include "The Politics of Biracialism" (2009); "Postcolonial Theory and Criticism" (2000); "Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader" (Columbia UP, 1994); and "Altered State? Writing and South Africa" (1994). She is currently researching black international and transnational culture during the Age of Empire, with a focus on black South Africa and America. As director of the Robert Chrisman Foundation, she publishes The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research, which proudly celebrates its 50th birthday next year.

Refreshments will be served. All are welcome.

About the Fletcher Lecture

Ian Fletcher was a much-beloved Victorianist, a specialist in the literature of the 1890s, who spent the final six years of his career at Arizona State University during the 1980s. A remarkably productive scholar much appreciated for his edition of Lionel Johnson's poems, his much-quoted guide to Walter Pater and his late study of Aubrey Beardsley published in 1987, Fletcher produced a host of books and articles that have been read and re-read many times in the past 40 years. In fact, his "Collected Poems" were published in 1998 — ten years after his unfortunate death. This lectureship honors his memory and his importance in the field of Victorian studies.

Image at right in the public domain: "Livingstone and Stanley: The Story of the Opening up of the Dark Continent by Robert Cochrane." [Illustrated] from The British Library.

Dan Bivona
Department of English
dbivona@asu.edu
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Memorial Union 236, Mohave Room