Bloodwork

Registration is now open for "Bloodwork: the politics of the body
1500-1900." The conference will be held in Tawes Hall at the University
of Maryland, College Park, May 6 and 7, 2011.

To register, please go to the conference website:
http://www.bloodworkconference.com and download the registration form.
Detailed information, including map/directions and the conference
program can also be found there. The registration fee of $45 will
include lunch both days and a cocktail reception the first evening of
the conference.

"Bloodwork: the politics of the body 1500-1900" explores how conceptions
of the blood-one of the four bodily fluids known as humors in the early
modern period-permeate discourses of human difference from 1500 to 1900.
"Bloodwork" begins with the assumption that the metaphorical equation of
blood with "race" as we understand it today is a distinctly modern,
always shifting, and geo-culturally contingent formation. Hence, we
believe a conversation among scholars from various periods and fields of
inquiry will enhance our understanding of the cultural history of blood.
Specifically, we ask how fluid transactions of the body have been used
in different eras and different cultures to justify existing social
arrangements.

Plenary speakers:

Jennifer Brody, Department of African and African American Studies, Duke
University

Michael Hanchard, Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins
University

Ruth Hill, Department of Spanish, Italian & Portuguese, The University
of Virginia

Mary Floyd-Wilson, Department of English, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill