Distinguished Lecture Series 26-27: Public Lecture by Prof Julia Kuehn

Distinguished Lecture Series, 2026-27 Semester 1 Public Lecture: The Art of Being There: Marianne North’s Brazilian Journeys in Paint and Prose Speaker: Chair in Modern English Literature and Culture, University of Groningen; Honorary Professor, The University of Hong Kong 4:00PM November 19, 2026 (Thu) Abstract This talk explores British botanical artist Marianne North’s travels through Brazil in 1873–74, examining how her paintings and travel writing transform encounters with the natural world into stories. Drawing on her memoir, Recollections of a Happy Life (1892), alongside her Brazilian painting series housed in the Marianne North Gallery in Kew Gardens, it considers how North’s narrative and pictorial perspectives shape the ways she observes, describes and represents Brazil’s extraordinary biodiversity. While her depictions often reflect the authority of the imperial gaze, they also reveal a more intimate, affective engagement with plants, animals and landscapes. Bringing art, travel writing and ecological thought into conversation, the talk asks what it means to be truly present in the natural world. Biography Julia Kuehn holds the Chair in Modern English Literature and Culture at the University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts. She is also the Co-Director of the Research Centre for Arts in Society (AiS) within the Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG). Her research interests are in critical theory, travel writing (often with a China focus) and the literature and culture of the long nineteenth century. Here, she specialises on issues of gender, Empire and travel, popularity and novel poetics. She has published monographs on the bestselling writer Marie Corelli, on colonial writing (about North Africa, the Middle East and India) between 1870 and 1920 and has edited a handful of essay collections on the poetics and politics of travel writing. Julia Kuehn also serves as an Honorary Professor in the School of English at the University of Hong Kong. Before January 2024, she was Professor of English Literature at the University of Hong Kong. She has held various administrative portfolios at HKU, including that of Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) and Head of School, and she was involved in diverse academic and outreach projects there. This is an in-person only event. We welcome you to sign up. If quota via Eventbrite is full, please sign up through the link below. https://english.hku.hk/event/620/Professor_Julia_Kuehn_-_Public_Lecture