Kipling’s “Kim”: A Tale for Our Time

In a new Future of the Humanities Project event series—Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference—we embrace the other at a time when we have heard much about the ways in which national, religious, and cultural lines divide us as humans. In this series, we will invite leading scholars across disciplines to explore themes of cultural encounters both in classic literary works and in contemporary cultural debates.

Rudyard Kipling’s Kim (1901) has received wide acclaim, ranking 78 in the Modern Library’s 1998 list of the 100 best English novels of the twentieth century and winning “best-loved novel” on the BBC‘s The Big Read poll in 2003. Despite this praise, it now trespasses into contested topics around race and coloniality with a sensibility that long pre-dates our own, so much so that its subject matter may be considered out-of-date or even offensive. In this talk, Durham University Assistant Professor Carmody Grey will discuss why Kim should not be discarded, as the novel models and represents a mode of encounter which remains uniquely textured, subtle, and sensitive beyond its time.

This event is sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project and Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. It is part of the year-long series, Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference.

Online. Free and open to all. Registration is required.

Participants

Carmody Grey is assistant professor of Catholic theology at Durham University in the United Kingdom and adjunct professor of ethics at the University of Bern in Switzerland. She writes, lectures, and teaches in academic and public fora on the ethics of science, economics, and environment. She does advisory, consultancy, and advocacy work with wide range of organizations including businesses, civil society organizations and NGOs, cultural and artistic enterprises, and faith leaders in the areas of ethics and values.

Michael Scott, Ph.D. (moderator), is senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, college advisor for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior advisor to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously served as the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University, where he is professor emeritus.

 

Contact:
Las Casas Institute with Georgetown University
lascasas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk