University of Illinois Professor and historian Craig Koslofsky is working on a new book: The Deep Surface: Skin in the Early Modern World, 1450-1750. He explores topics of race and representation of Blackness and whiteness, as well as tattooing and scarification (among other topics) to understand how we have used and continue to skin to create meaning. Koslofsky was awarded a fellowship from the Gerda Henkel Foundation for it, and part of that fellowship includes making a series of eight videos about his project for the Foundation’s website.
Koslofsky spoke with a number of people at the U of I about the ways his research (the history of skin) intersects with their own. You can read more about that in this Illinois News Bureau article.
You can watch those videos online; the first one is available now. The remaining seven videos will be released weekly through April 12th.
