On April 18, 19, and 20, 2024, Dr. Thavolia Glymph, Peabody Family Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of Law at Duke University, will deliver three lectures on “Playing ‘Dixie’ in Egypt: A Transnational Transcript of Race, Nation, Empire and Citizenship” for the Steven and Janice Brose Distinguished Lecture Series. The lectures are free and open to the public, and the schedule is as follows:

“’I am not going into the wilds of Africa’: Race and Nation in the Imagination of U.S. Civil War Veterans in Egypt” | Thursday, April 18, 5 p.m. | Foster Auditorium (102 Paterno Library)

“Playing ‘Dixie’ in the Wilds of Africa” | Friday, April 19, 5 p.m. | Foster Auditorium (102 Paterno Library)

“Egypt in the American Imaginary and the Making of an American Archive of Race and Nation” | Saturday, April 20, 11:30 a.m. | Foster Auditorium (102 Paterno Library)

“Playing ‘Dixie’ in Egypt: A Transnational Transcript of Race, Nation, Empire and Citizenship” is a study of white Union and Confederate soldiers who joined the Egyptian army of the Khedive Isma’il after the Civil War. It explores why they left the U.S. to become mercenaries of a foreign army and, more centrally, the part they played in making and transcribing notions of race, citizenship, nation, and empire globally and at home. For more information on this lecture series, click here.

The Brose Lecture Series is sponsored by the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at Penn State through the generosity of an endowment by Steven and Janice Brose and co-sponsored by the Penn State University Libraries.