Research Forum: Douglas Mao (Johns Hopkins) "Imperial Nothing"
Date: October 30, 2026 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Location: Virtual through Zoom - https://queensu.zoom.us/j/96159759596?pwd=7RsWsuUCkYdFYgbNoP7E6MG17R2Mac.1&jst=1
Department of English Literature & Creative Writing Presents Featured speaker: Professor Douglas Mao from Johns Hopkins University. Douglas Mao is the Russ Family Professor in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University and a scholar of modernist literature. His books include Inventions of Nemesis; Utopia, Indignation and Justice, Fateful Beauty, and Solid Objects. His work connects aesthetics, politics, and history, and has been supported by Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships.This talk places T. E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom alongside Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. It examines familiar narratives of imperial decline and the more radical idea of imperial nullity, asking what these texts reveal about freedom, memory, responsibility, and justice after empire, through a lens of “Imperial Nothingness”Join Zoom Meetinghttps://queensu.zoom.us/j/96159759596?pwd=7RsWsuUCkYdFYgbNoP7E6MG17R2Mac.1&jst=1Join and take noteshttps://queensu.zoom.us/j/96159759596?pwd=7RsWsuUCkYdFYgbNoP7E6MG17R2Mac.1&jst=1&mynotes=onMeeting ID: 961 5975 9596Passcode: 425451
Location: Virtual through Zoom - https://queensu.zoom.us/j/96159759596?pwd=7RsWsuUCkYdFYgbNoP7E6MG17R2Mac.1&jst=1
Department of English Literature & Creative Writing Presents Featured speaker: Professor Douglas Mao from Johns Hopkins University. Douglas Mao is the Russ Family Professor in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University and a scholar of modernist literature. His books include Inventions of Nemesis; Utopia, Indignation and Justice, Fateful Beauty, and Solid Objects. His work connects aesthetics, politics, and history, and has been supported by Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships.This talk places T. E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom alongside Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. It examines familiar narratives of imperial decline and the more radical idea of imperial nullity, asking what these texts reveal about freedom, memory, responsibility, and justice after empire, through a lens of “Imperial Nothingness”Join Zoom Meetinghttps://queensu.zoom.us/j/96159759596?pwd=7RsWsuUCkYdFYgbNoP7E6MG17R2Mac.1&jst=1Join and take noteshttps://queensu.zoom.us/j/96159759596?pwd=7RsWsuUCkYdFYgbNoP7E6MG17R2Mac.1&jst=1&mynotes=onMeeting ID: 961 5975 9596Passcode: 425451