Join us on Wednesday 7th October at 4pm for an exciting talk from Dr Sara Fernandes (University of Melbourne) who will be talking about her work in the archives, and the far-reaching implications of natural history education and settler narratives and lives.
Arts 103 (Constance Naden Room)
Title: ‘A Portable Little System: Natural History Lessons in Britain and Australia’
Abstract
This paper traces the development of natural history education and its relationship to the broader practice of rational pedagogy by women in Britain at the end of the eighteenth century. It also charts the transportation of this practice into the Australian colonial context in the nineteenth century with a focus on settler-author Louisa Anne Meredith (1812-1895). Meredith’s writing blends scientific knowledge and pedagogical purpose with inviting narratives in prose and verse. Meredith’s career began in Birmingham (where she published under her maiden name, Twamley). She emigrated to Australia via Sydney in 1839, before ultimately settling in Tasmania/lutruwita (VDL until 1856). Her work is largely out of print and access is kept alive by archives across Australia’s east coast, the National Library of New Zealand, and major institutions in the UK. This paper emerges from archival research that was supported by the Lisa Jardine grant (Royal Society), and it contributes to an ongoing collaborative project with my colleague in English/Education, Dr Lauren Weber. This paper will offer close readings of Meredith’s letters and published works and argues that Meredith imports the colonial apparatus of taxonomy, botanical illustration, and photography to classify and ‘familiarise’ living beings and ecosystems in Tasmania for developing readers across both colony and metropole.
Bio
Dr Sara Fernandes is a Lecturer in English and Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne, where she teaches and researches eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature, history of the novel, and history of science. She is a co-convenor of the research network Enlightenment and Romanticism at Melbourne (ERAM) and is currently collaborating on the project ‘Portable Pedagogies: Colonial Writing for Young Australia’ with Dr Lauren Weber (University of Wollongong). Research from this project can be found in Children’s Literature and the forthcoming issue of Genre. Her writing can also be found in New Literary History, Textual Practice, and European Romantic Review.