Return to Previous Press Release
Enter your name and a friend's email address in the fields below and click "Submit" to email this Press Release to a friend.
Your message will look like this:
[YOUR NAME HERE] thought you might be interested in this story from the University of Rochester.
MEDIA CONTACT: Kate Perry katie.perry@rochester.edu
585.275.2671
September 19, 2007
TIME, DATE, AND PLACE: 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, in the Robbins Library of the Rush Rhees Library on the University of Rochester's River Campus
ADMISSION: Free and open to the public
Historian William of Newburgh (c.1196) once told of a boy and a girl, who emerged from the ground in Woolpit, England. Despite their green skin and their inability to speak English, the pair were baptized and welcomed into the community where they each attempted to adapt to their new home. The girl assimilated and married, but the boy fell ill and died.
In this lecture, "The Green Children of Woolpit: Medieval English History and Its Aliens," Jeffrey Jerome Cohen analyzes this episode and how the historian William of Newburgh related it to the Norman conquest, and the presence in Britain of the people the English displaced with the conquest.
Cohen, who earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Rochester, is professor and the chair of the English Department at George Washington University. His books include Hybridity, Identity, and Monstrosity in Medieval Britain: On Difficult Middles (2006), Medieval Identity Machines (2003), and Of Giants: Sex, Monsters, and the Middle Ages (1999).
Cohen's lecture is one of several included in the series "The Medieval West: Contemporary Views," which is co-sponsored by the Robbins Library and the Departments of English, History, and Art and Art History. The series is part of the Humanities Project, an initiative by the University of Rochester emphasizing the influence and contributions of the humanities to academic and civil life.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the Web site at www.rochester.edu/College/humanities or e-mail humanities@rochester.edu.
The University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu) is one of the nation's leading private universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering is complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, and the Memorial Art Gallery.
PR 2982, MS 1512