Episode 25: Creepy Diaries of the early Caribbean Slave World with Liz Polcha

Join as we talk to English PhD Candidate Liz Polcha, who specializes in 18th and 19th century American and Caribbean literature, about her dissertation, "Redacting Desire: The Sexual Politics of Colonial Science in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World". Liz talks about her research path, navigating the worlds of literary criticism and history, feminist and postcolonial digital scholarship, and her dissertation. Very creepy diaries and travel narratives of the slave world of the early Caribbean! She walks us through some of her subjects, who fancied themselves as scientists but often functioned more as rapists, sex tourists, and torture, not as outliers but as a regular part of colonial life. Liz also talks about her experience in organizing a grad worker union and building hope in the academia, teaching, community, landing fellowships, and what's next! Don't miss this terrific interview with the one and only Liz Polcha! Projects mentioned in the podcast: Early Caribbean Digital Archive https://ecda.northeastern.edu/ Women Writers Project https://www.wwp.northeastern.edu/ Articles and Books mentioned in the episode: "The Origin of Others" by Toni Morrison https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34758228-the-origin-of-others "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book" Hortense J. Spillers https://people.ucsc.edu/~nmitchel/hortense_spillers_-_mamas_baby_papas_maybe.pdf "Venus in Two Acts" Saidiya Hartman https://myelms.umd.edu/courses/1224150/files/46327971/download?download_frd=1 "Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive" by Marisa J Fuentes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28561909-dispossessed-lives Other Shout-out: "Colored Conventions: Bringing 19th Century Black Organizing To Digital Life" http://coloredconventions.org/ The Breaking History podcast is a production of the Northeastern University History Graduate Student Association. Producers and Sound Editors: Matt Bowser and Dan Squizzero Theme Music: Kieran Legg Today's hosts were: Thanasis Kinias, Molly Nebiolo, Jamie Parker, and James Robinson