Module Convenor: Elise Smith

 

Human remains have a unique material history given their dual nature as both people and objects. Since antiquity, the remains of famous and infamous individuals have been preserved as emblems of their corporeal existence around the world. But in the modern era, those of less prominent individuals have also been used in teaching and research, identified as exemplars of disease or sources of corruption, mounted as trophies, used to solve crimes, and transplanted to save lives. As a result, tens of thousands of human remains have passed through medical schools, museums, and laboratories, and have been kept far from their intended resting places.

This 15-CAT module particularly focuses on the medical uses of human remains, charting the instrumentalization of body parts since 1800 and the historical legacies this process has incurred. It looks at the myriad reasons bodies and body parts have been preserved and the various functions they have served—from revered ‘relics’ to medicinal ingredients, from teaching and research objects to symbols of reconciliation.

Particularly drawing on methods in material history and medical history, this module examines the potency of human remains as subjects and objects, and the ongoing ethical issues surrounding their use and display. It examines the competing value systems that have made corpses and body parts into particularly contested objects for research, focusing on cultural taboos, beliefs about death, and the class and racial disparities that have informed the repurposing of the dead. Through activities such as a site visit to the Hunterian Museum (London), primary source analyses, secondary readings, and training in medical ethics and tracing object histories, this module will help students capture the polysemic nature of human remains as both people and things.

 

Syllabus

Week 1: Preserving the Dead—Holy and Secular Relics

Week 2: Eating the Dead—Cannibalism and Corpse Medicine

Week 3: Stealing the Dead—Grave Robbing and Dissection

Week 4: Collecting the Dead—Human Remains in Museums

Week 5: Field Trip to the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, London

Week 6: Reading Week

Week 7: Disposing the Dead—Cemeteries and Ossuaries

Week 8: Interrogating the Dead—Forensic Medicine

Week 9: Resurrecting the Dead—Transplantation and Tissue Research

Week 10: Returning the Dead—Repatriation

 

Assessment

• Seminar Contribution (20%)
• 3000 Word Research Essay (80%)