Infrahumanisms

“With superior scholarship and a daring treatment of her material, Megan H. Glick weaves together a wide variety of texts and historical periods in a sophisticated fashion. Glick's use of the concept ‘infrahuman’ to examine topics ranging from primatology and eugenics to obesity will be of great interest to scholars working in sociology, science and technology studies, animal studies, posthumanism, critical race studies, and gender studies. An insightful book and a strong contribution.” - Fiona Probyn-Rapsey, author of Made to Matter: White Fathers, Stolen Generations

“Infrahumanisms makes new inroads into science studies, animal studies, and critical race literatures by tracking post-eugenic thought through scientific disciplines and popular culture. Offering eye-opening analyses of how nonhuman bodies configure the social field of human differences, Megan H. Glick's excellent work helps us understand the history of the posthuman grounded in the changing biopolitics of race and empire.” - Neel Ahuja, author of Bioinsecurities: Disease Interventions, Empire, and the Government of Species

“Infrahumanisms is an ambitious book that shows the applicability of the term ‘infrahuman’ to a wide range of historical contexts and highlights how these relate to constructions of sexual, racial, gender, and bodily difference…. Offering analyses of an impressive range of twentieth-century scientific and cultural phenomena, from the emergence of primatology to extraterrestrial sightings in the postwar era and contemporary xenotransplantation, Infrahumanisms will be of interest to scholars working in the history of sexuality, critical race studies, animal studies, medical humanities, and science studies.” - Ina Linge, Journal of the History of Sexuality

“It is a rare work that can bring together topics as disparate as childhood, nonhuman primates, aliens, xenotransplantation, and AIDS…. Full of surprising connections and intriguing insights, Infrahumanisms is a rich and stimulating contribution to the literature on eugenics, biomedicalization, and biopolitics in general.” - Rose Trappes, Metascience

“The scholarly discussions in both human-animal studies and posthuman theory have been insufficiently attentive to race and colonial histories, and Glick’s work is a welcome addition to these conversations, showing gaps in previous ways of thinking about the ideological functions of the animal/human boundary.” - Sherryl Vint, Catalyst

“Infrahumanisms shows how beliefs about species categories, species relations, and species hierarchies form the ground from which ideas about biological essentialism, humane behavior, and dehumanization often grow…. Glick’s methods and style in Infrahumanisms are bold and refreshing…. Readers will find this book to be generous, opening up lines of inquiry that may be taken up elsewhere.” - Rebecah Pulsifer, Women's Studies Quarterly

“Glick presents a new focus on the history of dehumanization and devaluation, of cultural and political exclusion based on differential conditions of embodiment including race, gender, sexuality, disability, and disease status…. A dense yet rewarding read. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.” - J. A. Kegley, Choice