Description:

Speaker

Taylor Moore - History, University of California Santa Barbara

Title

"Living Fossils: Anatomies of Race and Reproduction in Egypt"

Abstract

This talk traces the scientific afterlife of the mummy Queen Henhenit from excavation to examination and display at the Naguib Mahfouz Museum of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Cairo's Qasr al-Ainy Medical School. Henhenit's story highlights the production of race science by "colonial" and "nationalist" doctors that created a fictive link between ancient and living women's bodies. These women became objects of scientific observation and study largely without their consent. The talk illuminates the violent, material histories of race and reproduction forged through the measurement of pelvic bones, quantifications of reproductive labor power, and invasive gynecological surgeries in early twentieth century Egypt. 

Biography

I am a historian of science, medicine, and race in the Modern Middle East, specializing in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Egypt. My research and teaching interests lie at the intersections of critical race studies, gender and sexuality studies, decolonial materiality, and histories of science, technology, medicine, and the occult in the non-West. I am invested in using object archives to illuminate the occult(ed) networks, economies, and actors whose knowledge, bodies, and labor are generally rendered invisible in Eurocentric histories of global science. My research on amuletic objects, occult texts, and material histories of the body encouraged my exploration into the promise of critical bibliographic methods for writing and teaching the social history of the Middle East and global histories of science, technology, and medicine. I am currently working to merge these interests as a Junior Fellow in the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at the University of Virginia’s Rare Book School.