Skin Acts

In Skin Acts, Michelle Ann Stephens explores the work of four iconic twentieth-century black male performers—Bert Williams, Paul Robeson, Harry Belafonte, and Bob Marley—to reveal how racial and sexual difference is both marked by and experienced in the skin. She situates each figure within his cultural moment, examining his performance in the context of contemporary race relations and visual regimes. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis and performance theory, Stephens contends that while black skin is subject to what Frantz Fanon called the epidermalizing and hardening effects of the gaze, it is in the flesh that other—intersubjective, pre-discursive, and sensuous—forms of knowing take place between artist and audience. Analyzing a wide range of visual, musical, and textual sources, Stephens shows that black subjectivity and performativity are structured by the tension between skin and flesh, sight and touch, difference and sameness.

Provides the latest information on imaging technologies and transdermal delivery in skin disorders This important, timely book covers the latest understanding about today's major skin disorders, the development of imaging technologies for skin diagnosis, and the applications of micro/nano-technologies for the treatment of skin complications. It also places great emphasis on the critical role that interdisciplinary science occupies to achieve the requisite level of understanding of skin conditions and their management, which is essential to creating technologies that work. Imaging Technologies and Transdermal Delivery in Skin Disorders starts by outlining the structural characteristics of skin and skin appendages. It then discusses the key pathways involved in skin growth and development. Clinical presentations, pathophysiological mechanisms, and current clinical practices used to treat diseases affecting the skin are then introduced. Common preclinical models used for studying the mechanisms of diverse skin diseases, validation of novel therapeutic targets, and screening of new drugs to treat these diseases are also covered. The book examines the latest imaging technologies for understanding in vivo skin changes, as well as technologies such as high-resolution ultrasound imaging, quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging, high-resolution Optical Coherence Tomography, and emerging hybrid-imaging modalities. It concludes with chapters introducing emerging drug delivery technologies and potential future innovative developments. * Presents up-to-date knowledge of the skin biology and pathologies * Introduces advancements in the topic of imaging technology for tracing the drug delivery process, which is rarely systematically reported by other counterparts * Covers the latest development in three inter-related directions of drug delivery, imaging, and skin disease intersect for skin research * Provides an overview of the latest development of diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for skin diseases Imaging Technologies and Transdermal Delivery in Skin Disorders will be of great interest to analytical chemists, materials scientists, pharmaceutical chemists, clinical chemists, biotechnologists, bioengineers, cosmetics industry, and dermatologists.