DR. GEMMA ANGEL History of Art Department, University College London gemma.angel.09@ucl.ac.uk http://www.lifeand6months.com RESEARCH INTERESTS The tattoo in European and American history, particularly in relation to discourses of criminality and the primitive. Prepared specimens: the cultures and processes of their preparation, collection and display, from the cabinet of curiosities and carnival sideshow to historical teaching collections and contemporary museum displays. Visual anthropology, anthropology of the body and multi-sensory research methods. The body in art and contemporary bioart practice. Discourses of abnormality, teratology and images of the grotesque body in art, medicine and popular culture. Material histories, object-lives and hybridity, especially in terms of Actor-Network Theory. Skin as a corporeal, sensory and cultural object ; haptics, tactility and communication. EDUCATION DOCTORAL DEGREE (2013) PhD History of Art, University College London in collaboration with the Science Museum London (AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award) Thesis Title: In the Skin: An Ethnographic-Historical Approach to a Museum Collection of Preserved Tattoos. MASTERS DEGREE (2009) MA Visual Anthropology (Film & Sensory Media), The University of Manchester - Distinction Dissertation Title: Haptic Communicative Practices: A Visio-Tactile Ethnographic Study within the Context of a Special Needs School. TEACHING DEGREE (2005) PGCE (Secondary) Art & Design, Manchester Metropolitan University BACHELORS DEGREE (2004) BA (Hons) Fine Art with History of Art, The University of Leeds - 2:i Dissertation Title: Cutaneous Arts: Practice and Meaning on the Border Between Self and the World. 1
ACADEMIC AWARDS & GRANTS Gay Clifford Bursary for Outstanding Women Students (January 2012) Travel grant to fund research trip to the Lacassagne archive in Lyon. AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award (2009~2012) The Passey Prize in Art for the Most Original Work of Art (June 2004) Stanley Burton Undergraduate Scholarship (2000~2004) PUBLICATIONS Roses and Daggers: Expressions of Emotional Pain and Devotion in Nineteenth Century Tattoos, in C. Rosenthal & D. Vanderbeke (eds.): Probing the Skin: Cultural Representations of Our Contact Zone, (Cambridge University Press: Forthcoming 2014). A Movement of the Soul: Embodied Encounters with Human Remains in the Phantom Museum, in United Academics Journal of Social Sciences (September/October 2013), Vol. 3 Issue 17: Morbid Curiosity Part II, (Digital: Open Access, ISSN/EISSN: 22125736) pp. 1-11. Atavistic Marks and Risky Practices: the Tattoo in Medico-Legal Debate 1850~1950, in K. Siena & J. Reinarz (eds.): A Medical History of Skin: Scratching the Surface, (London: Pickering Chatto, 2013) pp. 165-179. The Tattoo Collectors: Inscribing Criminality in Nineteenth Century France, in Bildwelten des Wissens (Winter 2012), Vol. 9.1: Präparate (prepared specimens), (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2012) pp. 29-38. CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Displaying the Self: The Tattoo From Living Body to Museum Collection. Presentation at the Exhibiting Human Remains conference, Hunterian Museum, London, June 4 th 2013. Roses and Daggers: Expressions of Emotional Pain and Devotion in Nineteenth Century Tattoos. Presentation at the Probing the Skin: Cultural Representations of Our Contact Zone conference, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, April 24 th ~26 th 2013. Atavistic Marks and Risky Practices: The Tattoo in Medico-Legal Debate, 1850-1950. Presentation at the Scratching the Surface: The history of skin, its diseases and their treatment conference, The University of Birmingham, October 29 th ~30 th 2010. 2
INVITED SEMINAR & CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS The Tattoo in Anatomical and Pathology Collections: Objects of Scientific Study or Curiosity? UCL Institute of Anatomical Sciences annual group meeting, March 25 th 2013. Public Engagement Case Study: UCL Researchers in Museums. Presentation and panel discussion at the University Museums Group Conference, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, March 8 th 2013. The Tattoo in Forensic Science: History, Contexts and Contemporary Practice. UCL Crime and Forensic Science Department, February 6 th 2013. Tattoos: The New Memento Mori? St. Bartholomew's Pathology Museum, QMUL, October 17 th 2012. The Body as Book: Tattoos, Text and the Flayed Body. The Last Tuesday Society. Morbid Anatomy lecture series curated by Joanna Ebenstein, September 17 th 2012. Beautiful Death and Incorruptible Bodies: Eternal Life and Aestheticized Death in Medicine and Catholicism. Presentation and panel discussion at The Last Tuesday Society, September 8 th 2012. Do Not Touch: Texture, Tactility and Affect in Museum Collections of Human Remains. Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at The University of Oxford, Global and Local Approaches to the History of Medicine Seminar Series, February 6 th 2012. The Body as Book: The Collection and Preservation of Tattooed Human Skin in Late Nineteenth Century Europe. AHRC Research Network The Culture of Preservation Workshop, at The Hunterian Museum at The Royal College of Surgeons: Wet Preparations: Anatomy, Pathology and the Body Contained, June 10 th 2011. Marking the (Criminal) Body: Degeneration and Tattooing in Nineteenth Century France. The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, Damaging the Body Seminar Series, May 9 th 2011. SEMINARS CONVENED Texture, Tactility and Affect. Working with the Wellcome Collection Tattooed Human Skins: Responses and Reflections. Paper presentation and co-organiser. UCL History of Art Department: Tattoo Art History: Examining the Vernacular Body Arts, April 2 nd 2012. Spectacular Tattooing: The Tattoo as Public Performance in the Early Twentieth Century Animal Entertainments Arena. Paper presentation and co-convenor: AAH 2012 Conference Panel: Tattoo Art History: Examining the Vernacular Body Arts, The Open University, Milton Keynes, March 29 th ~31 st 2012. 3
ACADEMIC TEACHING Course Leader: Nineteenth & Twentieth Century Art in London, History of Art Department, University College London, January ~ December 2012. Invited Guest Lecturer: MA Media Arts Philosophy & Practice/MA Media & Communication Research Practice Method Course, Department of Communication & Creative Arts, University of Greenwich, November 23 rd 2011. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT EVENTS Nerd Nite London at Paper Dress Vintage: Life and 6 Months: Tattoo Collecting in the Nineteenth Century, January 22 nd 2014. Museums Showoff: Manchester Art Gallery - February 28 th 2013; Wilmington Arms - January 17 th 2012; Camden Head - April 25 th 2012. UCL Bite-Sized Lunchtime Lecture Series at the Bishopsgate Institute: The Tattoo Collectors: Sailors, Criminologists & Bibliophiles, June 29 th 2012. Invited presentation at Art History in the Pub: Preserved Tattoo Specimens, May 6 th 2012. Event held as part of the Camden Crawl 2012. Invited seminar presentation at the 5 th Annual Brighton Tattoo Convention: Life and 6 Months: Tattoo Collecting in the Nineteenth Century, January 29 th 2012. UCL Bite-Sized Lunchtime Lecture Series: The Tattoo Collectors: Sailors, Criminologists & Bibliophiles, November 25 th 2011. Bright Club: Bloomsbury Theatre, University College London - October 24 th 2012; Greenman Festival, Glanusk Park, Wales - 17 th ~19 th August 2012; Crossover, Nexus Art Cafe, Manchester - October 20 th 2011; Museums, University College London - August 26 th 2011. Invited presentation for the Wellcome Collection Skin exhibition events programme: Tattoos: Marks of Meaning, July 22 nd 2010. 4
SELECTED MEDIA COVERAGE TV: BBC Breakfast News - Tattoo feature, December 22 nd 2013. Channel 4 News - Tattoo history feature, February 1 st 2013. Radio: ABC Australia - Invited guest appearance on Behind the Tweed, an academic drive time radio show. February 21 st 2014. Press: New Statesman - Will a tattoo ever hang in the Louvre? April 26 th ~May 2 nd 2013. Huffington Post - Unlocking the Mysteries of the Tattoos of the Dead, May 9 th 2012. The Observer - Tattoos: the naked truth about our forebears, May 23 rd 2010. OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Postgraduate Student Engagement Coordinator (Team leader, Researchers in Museums project), UCL Museums and Public Engagement Department, University College London, February 1 st 2012 ~ September 16 th 2013. Co-curator & Project Manager Foreign Bodies - UCL cross-collections exhibition, March 18 th ~ July 14 th 2013. Speaker, Wellcome Collection Audioguide Specialist commentary on preserved human tattoos for the Wellcome Collection, Medicine Man exhibition audioguide, 2011. Learning & Behaviour Support Teacher Bankhead Academy, Aberdeen, November 1 st 2007 ~ July 31 st 2008. Teacher of Art & Photography Plant Hill Arts College, Manchester, September 1 st 2006 ~ August 31 st 2007. 5