Refiguring the human

In this commentary on Weinstein and Broda’s paper, I consider their promising claims for the liberatory potential of the grotesque in biology/science education. In response to their analysis of four “specimen” examples, I address the question of confronting the limits of pedagogical representations of the grotesque and the abject. I offer suggestions to enrich their project with critical use of historical undercurrents informing normative images of the body. I propose that the functioning of a contemporary epistemic convergence of the grotesque and the sublime opens up the space for a continual reimaging and refiguring of bodies.