Two hands holding a smart phone photograph a placental dyeing procedure that researches freemartinism in cows.

Doctors at Leiden University hospital reenact Frank Lillie’s early placental dyeing method used as a diagnostic tool for assessing placental anastomosis. Used to study a biological phenomenon in genetically female cows born from a dizygotic twin pregnancy, called freemartinism, the dyeing technique maps the exchange of blood and hormones across the placental connection that renders the female twin intersex and unable to conceive. Film still from Flush (2023). © Lucy Beech, courtesy of the artist.

Colloquium 2025–26

Dept. Artifacts, Action, Knowledge

 

The Department AAK Colloquia are regular meetings for the department members to discuss our work in progress, to comment, and to help each other in our writing process. The format is a discussion of a pre-circulated paper, led by an introductory comment by an external discussant. 

Poster with four events. The background fades from blue at the top to purple at the bottom.

Winter Colloquium

2025

Winds of Change: Ethnographic Notes on Climatic Recursion, Refusal and Relationalities in the Lakshadweep Islands of India  MPIWG Room 265 & Online

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Archival Waste and the Molecular Politics of Feather Keratin MPIWG Room 265 & Online

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2026

The Materiality of the Occult: Talismans and Astral Imagery in Safavid Culture MPIWG Room 265 & Online

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Introduction: The Enchanted Basin and the Afterlives of Knowledge  MPIWG Room 265 & Online

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