Great Expectations in the Global Imaginary

Focused on the global afterlives of Charles Dickens’s 1861 novel Great Expectations, "Great Expectations in the Global Imaginary" will borrow from critical race studies, postcolonial theory, adaptation studies, and “undisciplined” literary/media studies to engage teachers in current academic conversations about decolonizing the classroom, even—and especially—when canonical British novels are at the center of their curriculum. The institute will provide an opportunity for teachers to be scholars as it explores criticism and theory that resituates the Victorian literary canon within and against nineteenth-century imperial networks, contemporary racial and social politics, and global systems of knowledge.