Project Description
Performing Phrenology: The Theatrical Roots of a 19th-Century Science asks how interactions between 19th century scientists and theatre professionals influenced the development and dissemination of phrenology, one of the most popular (and troubling) scientific fields of the 19th century. In addition, the project also investigates how phrenologists helped to shape 19th-century performance culture when they brought the casts and skulls of a diverse range of human subjects, including child prodigies, criminals, disabled men and women, and racialized peoples, onto the lecture stage.
Research Approach
This project integrates archival research with new developments in historical reenactment to engage in postcolonial critiques of 19th-century science. Through a combination staged readings and theatrical reconstructions, this project aims to document phrenology’s theatrical pre-history, and call attention to the symbiotic relationship between theatre and science in the nineteenth century.
Project Goals
- Challenge previous assumptions about the relationship between 19th-century science and performance.
- Enhance vigorous conversations around colonialist legacies and the repatriation of human remains.
- Expose the ways in which phrenologists used human remains to reinforce hierarchies of race, gender, class and ability.
performingphrenology.com 