Research Topic
Project Grant WOMENSBEAUT investigates cosmetic practices as key to understandings of gendered body care from 12th to 17th cent Europe. Relying upon medieval studies, gender studies, and the cultural history of medicine and science, it aims to advance the history of women’s partipation in the production of knowledge by focusing on the study of women’s beautifying practices. Historically recognized as the propriety of women, cosmetics and the care and embellishment of skin and hair have been considered as superficial issues resulting in a biased appreciation of their historical significance as belonging to knowledge systems of body care. Beautifying practices were not mere aesthetic choices but were integral to medical theory, cultural values, social ideals, and gendered identities.
The internship will involve working with historical recipe collections and structuring information within databases.