IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section B

Abstract

Thomas Jefferson’s Anatomical Theatre was the first campus building at the University of Virginia dedicated to medical study. Inside, bodies—many African-American and stolen from graves throughout the state—were dissected and destroyed. Some came from executions. Archival images reveal students posing with cadavers. A young man cradles a child’s corpse. Such dehumanization in the name of science laid the groundwork for UVA to play a leading role in the early 20th-century eugenics movement. Torn down in 1937, the Anatomical Theatre remains the only Jefferson-designed building at UVA to be dismantled. It is marked by a low stone marker. ‘Calling on Ghosts’ combines archival research and performance. In this work, Jefferson is dissected by a classroom of characters—mythic figures, cultural icons, and archive-inspired persona. Using primary sources, first-hand accounts, and embodied performance, I decode historical sites with humor and satire, unsettling easy narratives through misappropriated “edutainment” strategies like reenactments and theater games. While UVA’s Grounds are unique (a UNESCO World Heritage site), its manufactured power dynamics, racialism, and necropolitics extend globally. Charlottesville, where it is located, remains a microcosm of national tensions, with the impact of the Unite the Right Rally still felt. Jefferson helped architect a pervasive brand of soft power and violence. The master’s tools won’t dismantle the master’s house—but something brought the Anatomical Theatre down. This artwork and its creation process offer a toolkit for dismantling toxic structures from within, drawing lessons from resistance movements of the past.