Women, Travel, and Nationalism
Dr. Jeanne Moskal, Professor of English at UNC-Chapel Hill, will present a public lecture on travel writing Thursday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Hartness Auditorium. The lecture is made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The overall purpose of the event is to encourage faculty, students, and the public to consider the roles of travel writing in reflecting and constructing national identity. Her lecture should allow those attending to explore how travel writing depicts both the familiar and the exotic; how writers not only understand their nation’s identity but also help create it; and how religion, gender studies, history, anthropology, sociology, and politics influence travel writing.
Dr. Moskal’s research areas include the British Romantic period, literary theory, and travel literature. She is the author of Blake, Ethics, and Forgiveness (1994), the editor of Mary Shelley’s Travel Writings for the definitive edition of Mary Shelley’s works (1996). While editing Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters from Norway, she is also finishing a book on women travel writers and late eighteenth-century politics. She has also published articles in European Romantic Review, Romanticism, The Wordsworth Circle, Studies in Philology, Religion and Literature, Modern Language Quarterly, South Atlantic Review, and numerous anthologies.
In addition, she has handled job placement for Ph.D. candidates in the English Department at UNC-CH and has gained awards and widespread respect for her able mentoring of young scholars and teachers, especially young women.