The Magical Assimilation of the New World "Savage" France's Hidden Colonial History in the Classical Era Sara Melzer, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA will be speaking at the fourth seminar in the Humanities Institute series on magic.

She will discuss the implications of efforts to use magic to assimilate the 'savage' into France in the context of the colonialist project in the classical age.

Sara Melzer has published on Pascal, the political body in the 17th and 18th centuries and assimilationists politics in Racine.

Venue: 7 University Gardens, all welcome, lunch follows Friday 10 May 2002, 12 noon.

Those who would like to prepare for the talk may wish to consult:

Pierre de Lancre, Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et demons (Paris:Aubier), pp.57-93 PHOTOCOPY ON RESERVE

Stuart Clark, 'Festivals and Sabbats', in 'Thinking With demons. The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (Oxford:Clarendon, 1997), pp.11-30. ON RESERVE GUL

For further informationon the seminar series, contact the Arts and Humanities Research Institute, www.gla.ac.uk/ahri, directed by Genevieve Warwick, G.Warwick@arts.gla.ac.uk, tel: 0141 330 4139: and Amy Wygant, A.Wygant@french.arts.gla.ac.uk, tel: 0141 330 4588 or the University Press Office on 0141 330 3535.

-----------------------

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

First published: 8 May 2002