Stephanie DeGooyer: English Colloquium Event Series

Title: The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Asylum 

In 1774, Thomas Paine and other patriots argued that the American colonies should separate from Great Britain and become the “last asylum of liberty.” America would be an international haven for the Right of Man. This paper, based on my current book project, explores how American asylum represented a radical break from the offshoring model of the British Empire and anticipated the humanitarian protections of the twentieth century. Today, as powerful nation-states return to what I call a “neocolonial” paradigm of asylum, understanding the revolutionary model of asylum, which was propagated by politicians and poets alike, is of pivotal importance.