From the 1850s through the 1950s, Western women played significant roles in the British colonies in Africa and India in the fields of education, public health and missionary work. These women believed that they could improve the lives of non-Western women by acculturating them to the norms of their own middle-class, Western and Christian lives. The course will explore how these women tried to reshape key social institutions in Africa and India such as marriage, parenting, medical practices and religion. This course will also explore how the women and men these individuals came to “civilize” in turn shaped the cross-cultural encounter through their powerful reactions to the often unwelcome acculturating messages they received. The course draws upon historical material and autobiographical, literary, missionary and travelers’ accounts to investigate these events. Spring semester, alternate years.