*Historian and former RAI Visiting Fellow Tamson Pietsch will present and discuss her new book, _The Floating University_ (Chicago UP, forthcoming May 2023)*
The book tells the story of the 1926 Floating University: a bold experiment in which 500 American college students sailed around the globe in the belief that learning at sea would make them better citizens of the world. As well as a full curriculum, the voyage included visits to foreign dignitaries including Mussolini, Gandhi and the Pope, and stops in 47 ports. But the trip was also beset by trouble: reports of sex, alcohol and jazz made their way back to an American press hungry for scandal and the Floating University became a byword for what could go wrong with educational travel. The book explores this largely forgotten voyage and argues that - as well as the tentacles of US empire - it exposes a much larger contest over what kind of knowledge should underpin university authority, one in which direct personal experience came into conflict with academic expertise.
Open to all - no registration required.
A sandwich lunch will be provided.
The book tells the story of the 1926 Floating University: a bold experiment in which 500 American college students sailed around the globe in the belief that learning at sea would make them better citizens of the world. As well as a full curriculum, the voyage included visits to foreign dignitaries including Mussolini, Gandhi and the Pope, and stops in 47 ports. But the trip was also beset by trouble: reports of sex, alcohol and jazz made their way back to an American press hungry for scandal and the Floating University became a byword for what could go wrong with educational travel. The book explores this largely forgotten voyage and argues that - as well as the tentacles of US empire - it exposes a much larger contest over what kind of knowledge should underpin university authority, one in which direct personal experience came into conflict with academic expertise.
Open to all - no registration required.
A sandwich lunch will be provided.