Un/doing Albinism: Recodings of a bodily difference through historically shifting frames

白化病是一种疾病的医学术语，导致皮肤，头发和视网膜色素减退的突出特征的物理外观。这种外表偏离了世界各地的身体规范，在许多地方导致对患有这种疾病的人的污名化和歧视。这一现象往往被模糊地视为介于“种族”和“残疾”之间。本项目从宏观历史的角度审视了近500年来联合国/正在做的白化病作为联合国/正在做的差异的典范。这一长期观测的地理重点是欧洲、非洲和北美之间的跨大西洋三角地带。目的是从跨大西洋相互联系的角度来研究色素减退的历史。启发性地说，该项目区分了三个阶段，这三个阶段以不同的色素减退框架为标志：在原始白化阶段，色素减退的人被概念化为种族雌雄同体或人类精神杂交体;在白化阶段，他们被视为具有遗传综合征的人，在后白化阶段，他们被认为是具有某些审美品质的人。该项目通过其解释框架的转变-种族话语，魔法，医学和艺术-部分存在于历史继承中，部分同时存在于不同的社会领域，来检查对色素减退的重新编码。在这里，框架的转换一方面被理解为变化的社会条件的偶然影响，另一方面被理解为来自社会运动的具体的破坏行为。

Albinism is the medicalized term for a condition that results in a physical appearance with the prominent feature of hypopigmentation of the skin, hair and retina. This appearance deviates from physical norms throughout the world and results in many places in the stigmatization and discrimination of people with the condition. The phenomenon is often perceived ambiguously as falling between "race" and "disability". This project examines un/doing albinism as exemplary of un/doing difference from a macrohistorical perspective over a period of approximately 500 years. The geographical focus of this long-term observation is the transatlantic triangle between Europe, Africa and North America. The aim is to examine the history of hypopigmentation from the perspective of its transatlantic interconnections. Heuristically speaking, the project differentiates between three phases, which are marked by different framings of hypopigmentation: during the proto-albinistic phase, people with hypopigmentation are conceptualized as racial hermaphrodites or human-spirit hybrids; in the albininistic phase, they are seen as people with a genetic syndrome, and in the post-albinistic phase they are considered as people with certain aesthetic qualities. The project examines the recoding of hypopigmentation through the shift of its interpretative frames -- the race discourse, magic, medicine and art -- which exist partly in historical succession, and partly simultaneously in different social fields. The shifting of framings is understood here as a contingent effect of changing societal conditions, on the one hand, and a concrete act of undoing which emanates from social movements, on the other.