Historian Anthony Pagden describes European encounters in the South Pacific​​

​​European historian and political scientist Anthony Pagden, of the University of California-Los Angeles — this year’s Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities (IPH) lecturer — will give two presentations at Washington University in St. Louis.

Both talks are free and open to the public and will take place in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge.

The first, “Europeans in Polynesia/Polynesians in Europe: Discovering Eros in the South Pacific,” will be held at noon Wednesday, Feb. 6. 

The second talk, “Three Modes of Modernity: Patriotism, Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism,” will be at noon Thursday, Feb. 7.

Pagden holds a B.A., M.A. and D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. His research has concentrated on the relationship between the peoples of Europe and its overseas settlements and those of the non-European world from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He also has written on the history of law, and on the ideological sources of the independence movements in Spanish-America. In addition, he is completing a book on cosmopolitanism and the Enlightenment.

For information regarding the IPH lectures, visit iph@wustl.edu or call (314) 935-4200; for information regarding future Assembly Series events, visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call (314) 935-4620.