Honorable Mention, 2019 MLA Prize for a First Book
Sole Finalist Mention for the 2018 Lora Romero First Book Prize,
presented by the American Studies Association
Exposes the influential work of a group of black artists to confront
and refute scientific racism.
Traversing the archives of early African American literature,
performance, and visual culture, Britt Rusert uncovers the dynamic
experiments of a group of black writers, artists, and performers.
Fugitive Science chronicles a little-known story about race and science
in America. While the history of scientific racism in the nineteenth
century has been well-documented, there was also a counter-movement of
African Americans who worked to refute its claims.
Far from rejecting science, these figures were careful readers of
antebellum science who linked diverse fields--from astronomy to
physiology--to both on-the-ground activism and more speculative forms of
knowledge creation. Routinely excluded from institutions of scientific
learning and training, they transformed cultural spaces like the page,
the stage, the parlor, and even the pulpit into laboratories of
knowledge and experimentation. From the recovery of neglected figures
like Robert Benjamin Lewis, Hosea Easton, and Sarah Mapps Douglass, to
new accounts of Martin Delany, Henry Box Brown, and Frederick Douglass,
Fugitive Science makes natural science central to how we understand the
origins and development of African American literature and culture.
This distinct and pioneering book will spark interest from anyone
wishing to learn more on race and society.
