Abraham Bäck, Blackness, and Linnean racial science
In February 1744, famous Swedish physician Abraham Bäck (1713–1795) dissected the body of an unknown Black man who had recently died at the Hôpital de la Charité in Paris. This was a rare occurrence in eighteenth-century Europe. And it was unique for a physician from Sweden, which did not have colonial possessions and did not partake directly in the slave-trade during the Age of Liberty (Frihetstiden, 1719–1772).
Based on untapped archival materials, this lecture will explore Bäck’s little known research on Blackness, and investigate the role played by Black bodies in the development of Linnaeus’s own corpus on human taxonomy and human types.
Dr Vincent Roy-Di Piazza is a historian of early modern science, religion, and medicine. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Oxford, and is the 2023 Hagströmer Fellow at the Hagströmer Library, Unit for Medical History and Heritage at Karolinska Institutet.
Torsdagen 7 december kl 18.00
OBS! föredraget är på engelska
Hagströmerbiblioteket Haga Tingshus
Buss 515 (Odenplan) Hållplats Haga Södra
Anmälan emotses före tisdag 5 december
Email: info@hagstromerbiblioteketsvanner.se Telefon: 070 555 27 36
Förfriskningar serveras, medlemmar inträde 130 kr, icke medlemmar 180 kr
