Mon, Apr 03
|Thomson House Ballroom
A Bioarchaeology of the Self
A talk with Harvard Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Aja Lans
Time & Location
Apr 03, 2023, 12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Thomson House Ballroom, 3650 Rue McTavish, Montréal, QC H3A, Canada
About the event
A BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SELF: CARING FOR BLACK ANCESTORS IN SKELETAL COLLECTIONS
A talk by Dr. Aja Lans (Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University)
This talk discusses how my identity as a Black anthropologist influences and strengthens my work as a bioarchaeologist. My research focuses on the histories of Black people whose bodies have been curated in anthropological and medical skeletal collections. Such studies require an understanding of the ethical implications of working with human remains and descendant communities in ways that are rarely sufficiently addressed in anthropology. Accordingly, my research and writing are informed by a broader body of social theory and draw from Black feminism, critical race theory, and the history of science and medicine. I will discuss how I developed my research topics and the obstacles I encountered during the process.
Co-sponsored by: McGill University, The Anthropology Speaker Series, The Anti-Black Racism Action Plan of the Office of the Provost, Social Studies of Medicine, and Yan Lin Centre's Research Group on Global Pasts.