Kristin LaFollette, "Rehumanizing People of the Past: Bioarchaeology, Medical Museums and Archives, and the Human Remains Trade" (SUNY Press, 2026)

About this episode

Kristin LaFollette discusses her book on rehumanizing language in the context of bioarchaeology and the human remains trade.

Rehumanizing People of the Past: Bioarchaeology, Medical Museums and Archives, and the Human Remains Trade (SUNY Press, 2026) argues that much of the technical communication used to reference human remains--including reports in bioarchaeology, labels and descriptions in medical museums and archives, and web content in the human remains trade--does not adequately recognize the humanity of the individuals represented by those remains. The book presents "rehumanizing language" as a solution to this dehumanization problem, framing it as advocacy and social justice work in technical communication. Building from concepts and ethical standards in bioarchaeology, medical museums and archives, and the human remains trade along with technical communication and rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM), each chapter presents a framework for developing rehumanizing language in various contexts to better honor, dignify, and respect the people represented by human remains. These frameworks are also applied to several original studies, which explore existing technical communication and the ways it uses rehumanizing language or could be adapted to be more rehumanizing. Overall, this book is a tool…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Kristin LaFollette

Topics covered

• bioarchaeology
• medical museums
• human remains trade
• technical communication
• rehumanizing language
• social justice

Keywords

• human remains
• dehumanization
• advocacy
• ethical standards
• technical communication
• rhetoric of health and medicine

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Southern Indiana, SUNY Press

Books & works: Rehumanizing People of the Past: Bioarchaeology, Medical Museums and Archives, and the Human Remains Trade, Hematology

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