Annual Faculty Lecture: Carolyn Dinshaw

This talk will explore impossible or unmappable spaces, taking as its point of departure St. Brendan's Isle, an edenic spot supposedly reached by St. Brendan in the early Middle Ages but by the late 18th century determined to be a mirage, in order to speculate about exploration and empire, historical research, and the promise of utopia – a place at once real, illusory, and animated by desire.