The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program
Presents
A Montgomery Lecture
With
Bassam Sidiki, PhD
Assistant Professor of English
University of Texas at Austin
No Empire is an Island: Quarantine and US-British Inter-Imperiality
in the Caribbean and the Pacific
In 1962, two very different archipelagic nations achieved independence from Britain: Samoa in the Pacific Ocean, and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. One feature among many that unites these ostensibly insular territories in the twentieth century is how they became sites of intense inter-imperial contestation (and collaboration) between the British Empire and the increasingly ascendant US Empire. Drawing on a wide range of archives and cultural texts, Sidiki argues that infectious disease discourse and the practices of quarantine in Samoa (1918 influenza pandemic) and Trinidad (1940s-50s leprosy) were key to facilitating these inter-imperial encounters but also decolonizing movements and postcolonial literary sensibilities.
This lecture is open to the public and will be held in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie Research Building (303 E Superior St), Chicago Campus. For those outside the Chicago area and anyone who would prefer to attend remotely, a Zoom option is also available.
Only Zoom attendees are required to register
** PLEASE REGISTER TO RECEIVE THE ZOOM LINK**
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Cost: free!
Myria Knox
(312) 503-7962
Email