Constructing and Controlling Black, Female, Disabled, and Animal Bodies in the Long 19th Century (BATS)

Throughout the 19^th century bodies played a central role in numerous cultural practices. Bodies of women, slaves, animals, and people with disabilities were exhibited in zoos, freak shows, and public dissections; mental diseases, such as hysteria, were treated by disciplining the female body; populations were controlled by controlling reproductive bodies, and so forth. In the course of the seminar we will discuss these and other practices. We will ask how bodies, particularly those of women, slaves, people with disabilities, and animals have been conceptualised and controlled; and we will consider how conceptualisations of specific bodies have helped to establish and maintain imperial, patriarchal, racist and anthropocentric power structures.