Project A01: Coloristic Human Differentiation

Fair Skin in- and outside of Africa

The project juxtaposes two cases of fair skin in postcolonial contexts between Africa and Europe: Africans with albinism, who are, thus, targets of stigma, and people with normal skin pigmentation who artificially lighten their skin, which is considered to be attractive. The project aims to study the (de )thematization, signification, and presentation of skin colour in everyday life and in social media. Ultimately, the comparison of the two empirical cases under study with further cases of coloristic human categorization targets a post-racial reconceptualization of skin colour as a flexible marker of human categorization.

Projektteam
Prof. Dr. Matthias Krings (PI)
Christopher Hohl (PhD student)
Marion Grimberg (PhD student)