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Lecture features speaker on world literatures, philosophical genomics


The Ian Fletcher Memorial Lecture
April 08, 2013

The Department of English at Arizona State University proudly presents its annual Ian Fletcher Memorial Lecture set for 6 p.m., April 11 in the Memorial Union La Paz Room.

This year’s event will feature distinguished scholar, Regenia Gagnier, professor of English and Senior Fellow of the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis) at the University of Exeter, U.K.

In her talk, “World Literature and What It Means to be Human in the Niche of Nature, Culture, and Technology,” Gagnier will consider the “great geopolitical commodities – bananas, cotton, tea, rice, petroleum, coffee, tobacco, sugar, water, waste, transport – around which literatures and lives are built.”

Gagnier has won numerous awards for her transdisciplinary teaching and scholarship on Victorian literature and modern culture. In 2006, she was made Honorary Centenary Fellow of the English Association, in 2008 elected to the Royal Society of Arts, in 2011 elected to the International Association of University Professors of English, and in 2012 received by the Queen at Buckingham Palace for heritage and scholarship in literature and theatre.

The Fletcher lecture series was established in 1991 and hosts prominent scholars in literary studies. The series’ namesake, Ian Fletcher (1920-1988), was a beloved member of the Department of English at ASU. A prominent scholar of late nineteenth-century English literature, but also a renowned poet and playwright, Fletcher bridged the creative and the scholarly, conveying a special sensibility for literary studies.

On this, the 25th anniversary of Fletcher’s passing, ASU celebrates his many achievements and enduring contributions as a professor for the Department of English. Also of note: Hayden Library houses the Ian Fletcher Archives in its Special Collections, with approximately 1,500 items primarily focused on the late Victorian period.

For more information about the speaker or the lecture series, please visit the website: http://english.clas.asu.edu/fletcher.