Talk Series: Risa Puleo in Conversation with Jennifer Miller - November 13th, 2015

Friday Reading Series Risa Puleo Talk: How to Look at Monsters? Risa Puleo will look at two types of “monsters”–those persons deviating from the physical norm of a group, be it through difference in ability, race, sex or gender– especially prevalent in 17th Century Europe: hermaphrodites and hirsute women to examine how Baroque portraiture preserves, displays and reproduces the monstrous body. Co-created by early modern gynecology as it intersects with the Spanish colonial project and the rise of collecting art, objects and people, monsters challenged the social categories of Animal and Human; Male and Female in the early modern era and offer an alternative for challenging these categories today. Puleo’s talk will be followed by a discussion moderated by Jennifer Miller. Risa Puleo is a curator and writer living in Brooklyn, NY.