Political Chameleon: Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793)

Booking will close on Friday 27th February 2026 at 12 noon.

Due to limited resources we are UNABLE TO ACCEPT LATE BOOKINGS after this date.

This course will take place ONLINE on ZOOM.

Wednesday evenings 6.30pm - 8.30pm for five weeks, 4th March to 1st April 2026.

Olympe de Gouges is one of the most infamous women to have lived during the French Revolution. Though her early life remains a mystery, her revolutionary activities caught the attention of her contemporaries and scholars alike. Playwright, feminist, political chameleon, these are just some of the words that can be used to describe her. This course will provide attendees the opportunity to explore some of Gouges’s most famous works, including the Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791) and the Three Urns (1793), as a means of exploring why she was deemed a political threat and guillotined in November 1793.

Tutor: Sam Dobbie

Sam Dobbie graduated with a PhD history from the University of Glasgow. Her specialism is women’s political agency in eighteenth-century revolutionary Paris. However, she also has interests in France in the long nineteenth-century more broadly. She has worked as a PhD student tutor at the University of Glasgow, teaching on courses such as History 2A: The Social and Cultural History of Europe, 1500-2000, France: Nation, Revolution and Empire, 1789-1914 and Becoming an Historian. She has also taught on the Glasgow Caledonian module The Rise of Western Societies, 1789-1914 and provided temporary teaching cover for the University of Exeter on France and Empire, 1756-1830.

Course Code 09 223

Enquiries should be sent to: lifelonglearningdundee@gmail.com

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