Strangers Within: A Cultural and Genomic History of Red Hair

FAIN: FZ-287209-22

Sophie Kirsten White
University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN 46556-4635)

Writing toward a book on the scientific, cultural, and visual history of red hair.

_Strangers Within: A Cultural and Genomic History of Red Hair_ analyzes how redheads have been marginalized and penalized over a wide temporal and geographic swathe. Juxtaposing cultural history with new genomic discoveries, this is an investigation of MC1R gene variant carriers and the gendered and sexualized myths that have been ascribed to this phenotypic group. Grounded in contemporary popular culture and running the gamut from genomic findings (which include medical singularities) to Norse mythology, Celtic folklore, slavery in Ancient Greece and Rome, the Inquisition, anti-Semitism, art historical and literary representations, this book has implications and ambitions beyond red hair as a model for understanding the construction of otherness—and the fear and attraction, adulation and abuse—of the other.