Online, Wednesday 3 July 2024, 1.00pm to 2.00pm AEST
The contentious science of phrenology once promised insight into character and intellect through external ‘reading’ of the head. In the transforming settler-colonial landscapes of nineteenth-century Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and well into the twentieth century, popular phrenologists performed their science of touch and cranial jargon everywhere from mechanics’ institutions to public houses. In this RAHS Day Lecture, Alexandra Roginski invites us into a history of this everyday practice and to reflecting on the enduring appeal of a shortcut to knowing who we can trust.