Elaine Ayersさんのプロフィール画像

Elaine Ayersさんのイラストまとめ


Historian of science, collecting, plants // Professor at NYU + Brown // PhD in History of Science from Princeton // Contr. Ed. at @PublicDomainRev
elaineayers.com

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We had a really productive discussion in last week on Joseph Banks, the Transit of Venus expeditions, and colonialism in the South Pacific, reading against the "famous explorer" narrative often at play here.

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My first piece as contributing editor for is up! I had a great time writing about James Sowerby's 1802-17 British Mineralogy, a gorgeous and fascinating text from one of my favorite scientific illustrators.

https://t.co/WwEECCHTVv

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New York-based friends + colleagues! I'm teaching a new course this spring at NYU called "Bodies on Display: The Poetics + Politics of Bodily Display in Natural History Collections." If you're part of the consortium, please pass this along to students--they're welcome to join!

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Back from "break" to Week 4 of This week we talked about scientific expeditions + fieldwork in "extreme" environments, from the tropics to the Arctic. We discussed hierarchies of knowledge production, the movement of specimens + the "burden" of science.

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Class is back in (in-person) session, y'all! In Week 2 of we discussed the material culture + labor of taxonomy in the 18thC, from the classification of mammals to crazy things like platypuses and from the abortifacient peacock flower to Linnaeus' sexist plants.

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Week 6 of History + Theory of Museums is finito! This week we talked about Objectivity + Authenticity in the museum. What does it mean for an object to be "real?" How have conceptions of objectivity changed over time? How do museums build reputations as sites of "truth telling?"

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And in Week 6 of we discussed archival silences + narratives of failure: how have archives silenced certain voices and controlled narratives, and how do we work through/around/against this as historians? How do we deal with pain + violence?

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Finished a major project yesterday for a very cool publication + I got to use the coolest images ever (and so many of them!) God it feels good not being in grad school anymore.

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