Visual Regimes of Discipline in U.S. Higher Education: Bodies in the Frame

“Blurring the lines between science and art, the Posture Project explores redefining and reclaiming identity, who gets to decide that, and the very real impacts of representation.” (Alex Schaufele, Exhibits Manager for the Sloan Museum of Discovery, Michigan, USA)

“Bodies in the Frame reveals the hidden history of posture photography at elite U.S. colleges, where students were photographed nude under pseudoscientific, eugenicist pretenses. Through archival research, feminist theory, and immersive art, Baldwin, Lee, and Henderson expose how institutions used visual technologies to regulate race, gender, and ability—while inviting us to imagine more caring, liberatory ways of seeing and remembering.” (Myra Washington, Associate Professor Ethnic Studies, Assistant Vice President for Faculty Support, The University of Utah, USA)

“Posture Portraits reveals how posture photography served as a tool of biopolitical control under the guise of science. Through art and technology, the authors reimagine this archive as a site of refusal, care, and critical transformation.” (Andrea Wollensak, Professor of Art, Connecticut College, USA)

“Blurring the lines between science and art, the Posture Project explores redefining and reclaiming identity, who gets to decide that, and the very real impacts of representation.”
— Alex Schaufele, Exhibits Manager for the Sloan Museum of Discovery, Michigan, USA

“Posture Portraits reveals how posture photography served as a tool of biopolitical control under the guise of science. Through art and technology, the authors reimagine this archive as a site of refusal, care, and critical transformation.”
—Andrea Wollensak, Professor of Art, Connecticut College, USA

This book employs an intersectional feminist lens to examine how U.S. national, social, and cultural ideologies surrounding health and intelligence have been shaped and sustained through racist, gendered, and ableist scientific practices and photographic technologies. Focusing on posture photography programs implemented at women’s colleges throughout the 20th century, the chapters trace the entanglements of these visual regimes with the eugenics movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through a series of case studies and creative interventions, the authors analyze how these photographic practices functioned as tools of bodily discipline and normative regulation. They also detail their own use of technology, photography, and the arts to reimagine and recreate posture portraits—challenging narratives of pathology and shame, and honoring bodies historically marked as Other.

This book will be of interest to scholars in Gender and Women’s Studies, Studies of Race and Ethnicity, Disability Studies, Visual and Performance Studies, Digital Humanities, Sociology, History, and Technology Studies.

Andrea N. Baldwin is Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah, USA.

Sangyoon Lee is a media artist and Associate Professor of Computer Science at Connecticut College, USA.

Heidi Henderson is a choreographer and Professor of Dance at Connecticut College, USA.