Dorinda Outram
Professor
Gladys I. and Franklin W. Clark Chair in History
369A Rush Rhees Library
Rochester, New York 14627-0070
otrm@mail.rochester.edu
phone: 585.275.4097
fax: 585.756.4425
Ph.D., University of Cambridge, 1974
Courses Offered
(subject to change)
Spring 2009
On Leave
Fall 2009
HIS 215: The Enlightenment
HIS 232: French Revolution
Spring 2010
HIS 222W: Children, Families, and the State (WST 227)
HIS 289: History of European Exploration (ANT 289)
Fields of Interest
European history, 1648-1848, especially Enlightenment and French Revolution; cultural history; history of the body; history of geographical exploration; history of science.
My initial training was in general history, from which my focus shifted onto the history of science. From there, visits to Australia and the Pacific convinced me of the importance of the history of exploration and of the encounter of different cultures. After education at Cambridge (England), I came to Rochester in 1998, where I was awarded the Clark Chair in History. My interests include revolutionary France, women's history, history of science and the Enlightenment and most recently have included the history of religious conversion in the eighteenth century. I have written five books, and am working on the sixth, tentatively entitled Brilliant Light: Conversion in the Enlightenment, which will also relate to modern religious controversies. My teaching philosophy is to welcome and draw students into the subject through conversation, toleration, and mutual respect, thus making a bond with text and subject. Students may discuss with me at any time.
Representative Publications:
- Panorama of the Enlightenment (Thames and Hudson, November 2006).
- "On being Perseus: travel and truth in the Enlightenment," in C. Withers and D. Livingstone, ed., Geography in the Enlightenment, (Chicago University Press, 1999).
- "On being a contemporary," in S. Schaffer, J. Golinski and W. Clark, eds., The Sciences in Enlightenment Europe, (Chicago University Press, 1999).
- The Enlightenment (Cambridge University Press, 1995, second edition, 1997, thurd edition 2006).
- '"Mere words:" Enlightenment, Revolution and Damage Control'; Journal of Modern History, 63, (1991), 327-362.
- The Body and the French Revolution (Yale University Press, 1989).
- Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: Women in Science, 1789-1979 (Rutgers University Press, 1987) with P. Abir-Am.
- Science, Vocation and Authority in Post- Revolutionary France: Georges Cuvier (Manchester University Press, 1984).
