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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Science in Captivity: The Visual Culture and Bioethics of Biomedicine behind Bars Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1cr4q85p Author Visperas, Maria Cristina Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Science in Captivity: The Visual Culture and Bioethics of Biomedicine behind Bars A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Communication (Science Studies) by Maria Cristina Mejia Visperas Committee in charge: Professor Patrick Anderson, Co-Chair Professor Lisa Cartwright, Co-Chair Professor Dennis Childs Professor Kelly Gates Professor Martha Lampland Professor Jared Sexton 2017 Copyright Maria Cristina Mejia Visperas, 2017 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Maria Cristina Mejia Visperas is approved, and acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Co-Chair Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2017 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... vii Vita ................................................................................................................................... viii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2 The Skin Apparatus .......................................................................................... 32 Chapter 3 Skin and the Carceral Space ............................................................................. 70 Chapter 4 Bioethics and the Skin of Discourse .............................................................. 124 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 173 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 190 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Front page news photograph of medical examination in H block. Photograph by Michael Maicher, 1966. Reproduced with permission from the Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA. .. 32 Figure 2: Sebum and keratin accumulation on forehead of test subject. Image from Kligman and Shelley (1957). Reproduced with permission from Elsevier. ......... 41 Figure 3: Magnified view of sebum droplets (left) and bacteria (right). Images from Kligman and Shelley (1957). Reproduced with permission from Elsevier. ......... 42 Figure 4: Sebum collection from forehead. Image from Kligman and Shelley (1957). Reproduced with permission from Elsevier. ......................................................... 45 Figure 5: Maximization test on the lower back. Image from Kligman and Wooding (1967). Reproduced with permission from Elsevier. ........................................... 52 Figure 6: Skin on upper back treated with Retin-A after six weeks. Image from Kligman and Willis (1975). Reproduced with permission from the American Medical Association. ........................................................................................................... 60 Figure 7: Slides of skin before (left) and after (right) treatment with Retin-A. Image from Kligman and Willis (1975). Reproduced with permission from the American Medical Association. ............................................................................................. 62 Figure 8: Aerial photograph of Holmesburg Prison by Aero Service Corporation, 1915. Reproduced with permission by The Library Company of Philadelphia. ............ 76 Figure 9: “a means to an end” by Matthew Christopher, 2010-2014. Reproduced with permission from the artist. .................................................................................... 79 v Figure 10: “a way to make amends” by Matthew Christopher, 2010-2014. Reproduced with permission from the artist. ........................................................................... 79 Figure 11: Untitled by Thomas Roma, 2013. Reproduced with permission from the artist. ............................................................................................................................... 81 Figure 12: Three untitled photographs of individual cells by Thomas Roma, 2013. (Left) Empty cell with dark stain on floor. (Center) Two iron bed frames leaning on back wall of cell. (Right) Single iron bed frame in center of cell. Reproduced with permission from the artist. ................................................................................... 85 Figure 13: “Second Skin. Cell 560,” By Patricia Gómez and María Jesús González, 2011. (Left) Photograph of canvas stripped from cell entrance. (Right) Photograph of nearly completed canvas. Reproduced with permission from the artists. ............ 92 Figure 14: Still from video installation of “Depth of Surface.” By Patricia Gómez and María Jesús González, 2011. Reproduced with permission from the artists. ....... 96 Figure 15: Screen shot of night-vision view from static camera in prison rotunda. From episode 4 of Ghost Stalkers. Reproduced through terms of fair use. .................. 106 Figure 16: Screen shot of wormhole detector. From episode 4 of Ghost Stalkers. Reproduced through terms of fair use. ................................................................ 108 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply thankful to my co-chairs professor Patrick Anderson and professor Lisa Cartwright for their unwavering support and incisive critique of the research and writing that produced this dissertation. I am also grateful to committee members Jared Sexton, Kelly Gates, Martha Lampland, and Dennis Childs for their important contributions to my thinking. I would also like to thank Nat Norton and Martina Darragh at the Bioethics Research Library, Georgetown University, and Brenda Galloway-Wright at the Urban Archives, Temple University, for their immense help in finding and accessing the historical materials used in this dissertation. Thank you as well as to the artists Thomas Roma, Patricia Gómez, María Jesús González, and Matthew Christopher for allowing me to use their images. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the American Association of University Women, the UCSD Department of Communication, the UCSD Science Studies Program, the UC Institute for Research in the Arts, and the UCSD General Campus Research Grant for the support provided in the writing of this dissertation. vii VITA 2007 Bachelor of Science, University of California, Davis 2007-2010 Research Assistant, Stemedica Cell Technologies, Inc. 2011 Master of Arts, San Diego State University 2012-2014 Teaching Assistant, Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego 2014-2016 Managing Editor, Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 2017 American Association of University Women Fellow 2017 Doctor of Philosophy, Communication (Science Studies), University of California, San Diego PUBLICATIONS 2016. “Nothing/More: Black Studies and Feminist Technoscience.” Special feature in Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 2(2). Co-edited with Kimberly Juanita Brown and Jared Sexton. 2014. “African Kaposi’s Sarcoma in the Light of Global AIDS: Antiblackness and Viral Visibility.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 11(4), 467-478. Co-authored with Pawan Singh and Lisa Cartwright. 2013. “Chicken Embryonic Brain: An In Vivo Model for Verifying Neural Stem Cell Potency: Laboratory Investigation.” Journal of Neurosurgery, 119(2), 512-519. Co- authored with Alex Kharazi, Michael Levy, and Chih-Min Lin. viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Science in Captivity: The Visual Culture and Bioethics of Biomedicine behind Bars by Maria Cristina Mejia Visperas Doctor of Philosophy in Communication (Science Studies) University of California, San Diego, 2017 Professor Patrick Anderson, Co-Chair Professor Lisa Cartwright, Co-Chair This dissertation analyzes the intersections of US incarceration and medical science during the post-war period, examining how interlocking carceral and medical regimes of controlling the body together form a race-making technology and racialized geography reconfiguring the nation's history of captivity from slavery to mass imprisonment, and how they may signal the possibility of a bioethics in line with prison abolition. The dissertation focuses on the notorious dermatological experiments ix conducted between 1952 and 1974 at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia. Led by University of Pennsylvania doctor and professor Albert Kligman, experiments at Holmesburg were carried out in the service of U.S. war efforts, pharmaceutical ventures, and the field of dermatological practice more broadly, composing one of the largest prison experimental programs of its time. Revisiting Kligman’s medical experiments
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