October 4th
Dr. Sarah Robbins (English, Texas Christian University) will present “A Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic ‘Lean In’ Story: How Jane Addams and Henrietta Barnett Used Writing for Reciprocal Mentoring.” This talk will share Dr. Robbins’ recent research on the rhetoric of gendered friendship maintained by Jane Addams and Henrietta Barnett (co-founder of the British settlement at Toynbee Hall, a site which cultivated leaders who were devoted to serving London’s East End poor). It will focus on the ways Addams and Barnett used virtually every kind of networking tool available in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to maintain their connections and support each other’s work for more than 50 years. 