Performances of Deviance and Merit in Historic Perspective.
The research project investigates how disability performances as practices of human categorization have changed over the past 200 years. The focus lies on the historical comparison of three diverging genres of merit presentation: freak and side shows, the presentation and staging of the Paralympics, and contemporary theatre and dance performances by disabled artists. The project aims to determine how, in the longue durée in relation to presentation practices of disability performances, the entanglement and interplay of deviance and merit change or recur at different paces.
Project team
Jun-Prof. Dr. Benjamin Wihstutz (PI)
Elena Backhausen (PhD student)
Mirjam Kreuser (PhD student)
