The Master of Arts in Medical Humanities and Bioethics program presents
a Montgomery Lecture
with
Catherine Belling, PhD
Associate Professor, Medical Education
Faculty, Medical Humanities & Bioethics Graduate Program
Member, Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Ugly? Aesthetic Diversity and Affective Discipline
This presentation considers aesthetic diversity in two senses: differences in appearance (that may or may not be associated with disability or advantage), and differences, social and individual, in responding to the looks of others. The initial affective reaction to seeing, whether attraction, curiosity, or revulsion, is usually followed by a willed disciplining of the gaze—“It’s rude to stare.” Drawing upon Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s theoretical work in Staring (2009), this presentation will focus on the case of Lizzie Velasquez, a motivational speaker who has Marfan Syndrome, examining her response to the ethics that discipline (or fail to discipline) what Garland-Thomson calls our primal “hunger for and horror of the stare.”
Bryan Morrison
(312) 503-1927
Email