Research interests:
Dr. Cornelius-Diallo’s research examines the development of “racial
science” during the nineteenth century. Her book manuscript titled ‘More
Approximate to the Animal:’ African American Men and Women’s
Resistance to the Rise of Scientific Racism in Mid-Nineteenth Century
America provides a gendered analysis of the ways in which African Americans
--enslaved and free, lettered and illiterate -- addressed scientific
theories of racial differences. Cornelius-Diallo argues that a gendered
analysis of the development of scientific racial discourse illuminates
the ways in which the scientific constructions of human differences
served racist, sexist, and imperialist political agendas.
Previous studies
of racial science during the nineteenth century have ignored the
centrality
of scientific efforts to construct the black
female body as a laboring body, one bereft of “motherly” instincts.
Upon publication of the manuscript, Cornelius-Diallo’s next research
project will focus on scientific constructions of black motherhood
as they informed social policy makers between the mid nineteenth to
late twentieth centuries.
Although it is clear that science historically has been misused, Cornelius-Diallo
encourages students to move beyond a simple vilification of science.
Instead, they are challenged to consider the ways practitioners may
use medicinal and scientific knowledge as a tool of resistance.
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