University of Illinois at Chicago assistant professor of history Kirk Hoppe will explore methods and practices of colonial sleeping sickness control in Africa when he kicks-off the 2000-2001 Institute for the Humanities Fellows public lecture series, presented by UIC's Institute for the Humanities.

His talk, "Lords of the Fly: Constructions of Knowledge and Landscape in British Colonial Sleeping Sickness Control, 1920-1963," will focus on British sleeping sickness policies and environmental engineering.

"Sleeping sickness control was a powerful vehicle of colonial ideology and environ-mental intervention in Africa and for the professionalization of Western natural sciences," said Hoppe.

Thursday, Jan.11
2:00 p.m.

Stevenson Hall
701 S. Morgan St.
Lower level

Sleeping sickness control in colonial Tanzania involved state transfer of massive tracts of land and the forcible relocation of Africans into what were supposed to be carefully planned and controlled settlements.

"Sleeping sickness officials judged Africans as incapable of effectively controlling nature, and linked disease to economic, moral and social disorder," said Hoppe. "While the methods and rhetoric of colonial science gave colonial actions the power of objective altruism, in practice, sleeping sickness control was ad hoc, dependent on African participation, shaped by African resistance, and in some ways, very imaginary."

The lecture is free and open to the public. A brief reception will follow.