Talk - Alexandra Roginski - Touching the Town: Popular Phrenology and Charismatic Careering in the Tasman World
Jon author, Dr Alexandra Roginski, as she peers into the lives of self-appointed ‘professors’ and ‘madames’ who took the popular science of phrenology into even the smallest settlements during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Australia’s colonial history contains many lives pursuing practices long gone and often now forgotten. What might we learn if we mark time and remember figures in the margins of transforming worlds? Claiming to judge innate character from head shape, these performers – who often hid sordid pasts – injected chaos and levity into the towns they visited in exchange for small incomes and a touch of authority. Phrenology was contested from its outset and is now emblematic of pseudoscience. But why did it hold such a firm grip on the public imagination?
Event hosted by:
Event information and booking link: https://events.humanitix.com/dr-alexandra-roginski-touching-the-town
Venue: Blackheath Presbyterian Church Hall, 123-125 Wentworth St, Blackheath
Ticket Cost: $10 wages, $5 unwaged.
Event Contact: Blackheath History Forum, blackheathhistoryforum1@gmail.com
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