TIHS with Stephanie DeGooyer: "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 based on reception in the state is of pivotal importance. 

Bio:

Stephanie DeGooyer is assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is co-author of The Right to Have Rights
(Verso Book) and author of Before Borders: A Legal and Literary History of Naturalization
(Johns Hopkins University Press). In addition to publishing articles in ELH, American
Literary History, and Humanity, DeGooyer has written for The Guardian, The
Nation, Boston Review, Dissent, Lapham's Quarterly and Public Books.