CURRENTS: Drew Holladay and April Householder
Humanities Work Now
Location
Performing Arts & Humanities Building : 216 and Online
CURRENTS: Drew Holladay and April Householder – Online Event
Date & Time
November 6, 2023, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Description
CURRENTS: Humanities Work Now is a lunchtime series that showcases exciting new faculty/student work in the humanities in a dynamic and inter-disciplinary setting. In general, two speakers will share the free hour with 2 short, informal presentations (10 min. ea.) and time for discussion.
Re-entangling Identities in Mental Health Activism
Drew Holladay, Assistant Professor, EnglishFeminist philosopher Maria Lugones argues that our identities cannot be separated but may be considered non- distinguishable—in Lugones' term, “curdled.” Drew Holladay suggests that the “curdled” conception of identity can also transform how we think about communication and persuasion by encouraging a vision of rhetorical interdependence powered by the resilience of resistant identities against dynamic evolving oppressions. To illustrate the entanglement of embodied identities, Holladay unpacks the history of intersectional mental health activism in the Mad, consumer/survivor/ex-patient (C/S/X), and neurodiversity/neuroqueer movements, especially their resistance to the institution of psychiatry and the mainstream constructions of mental health it represents.
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Bouboulina’s Bones: A Comparative Osteobiography
April Householder, Director, Undergraduate Research and Prestigious Scholarships
Previous studies of the life of Laskarina Bouboulina (1771-1825) – the heroine of the Greek Revolution – including April Householder’s 2023 edited volume, have focused on written historical records, produced mostly by male philhellenes and local historians. Now, Householder turns to the scientific taphonomy that considers an equally reliable source-- Bouboulina’s biological profile (her bones), kept in a casket on display in the Mexis Museum in her home island of Spetses. This study is the first to provide an intersectional methodology that goes beyond the pages of written history to ask questions directly of the body—Bouboulina’s skeletal remains—in order to confirm and contest assumptions about her life, including the mystery of her unsolved murder.