In the weeks leading up to the 2017 Flexner Lectures, we're highlighting the many engaging courses being offered in conjunction with Brown University Professor Bonnie Honig's residency and lectures. "Refuse and Refusal in Victorian Britain" is taught by Professor of English Kate Thomas.
The florid wealth of Britain in the nineteenth century was fed by income from slave trade, industrial exploitation, and imperial expansion. It was also an era that was horrified by its own growth; abolitionism, the women鈥檚 suffrage movement, the arts and crafts movement, the inception of the welfare state were all nineteenth century protests against the waste of human life and spirit. The noun 鈥渞efuse鈥 finds etymological root in the concept of that which is 鈥渄espised, rejected ... outcast.鈥 This course will touch down on key events, debates and literatures that brought the figures of the outcast and the resister into sharp relief.
Established in honor of Mary Flexner, a 伊人直播 graduate of the class of 1895, the Flexner Lectureship has brought some of the world鈥檚 best-known humanists to campus for a brief residency. In addition to their public lectures, holders of the Mary Flexner Lectureship often lead seminars or discussions with undergraduate and graduate students. By agreement with 伊人直播, the Flexner Lectures are .