MMoR welcomes Prof Kevin Killeen (York) to King’s to lead a seminar on Thomas Browne and the role of skin colour between religion, science, and medicine in the seventeenth century.

Thomas Browne (1605-1682) was one of the most prolific and interesting medical and theological writers of his day. He was also one of the most poetic and controversial seventeenth-century theorists of skin. In 1646 his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, commonly known as “Vulgar Errors” took an adversarial approach to the dominant ideas about skin colour, particularly to the causes of “Black” skin. But Browne’s own thoughts on skin are less clear, as is the overall effect of his text on ideas of early modern human difference. This informal reading group will explore selected writings by Browne on skin colour, in the context of his thinking, and the broader setting of the seventeenth century. We welcome enquiries from interested researchers who wish to attend, please contact mmor@kcl.ac.uk. This will be taking place in person at King’s College London’s Strand Campus in K0.17.