Susan Antebi has built a career based on both the depth and breadth of her fascinating interests. In recording this episode, she taught me so much about things I had never considered.

Susan is Professor of Latin American literature at the University of Toronto. Much of her award-winning writing and research focuses on ways the disabled or abnormal are depicted in Mexican culture. She traces some of these depictions to the eugenics movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I know a bit about eugenics and its awful place in US and German history, but I didn’t know anything about its presence in Mexico.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The origin of Susan’s passion for cultures and languages

The ways in which the eugenics movement shows up today in Mexican culture

How some reality TV programming can be seen as the modern day manifestation of the carnival freak show

Why she’s researching depictions of the paranormal

The Amherst classmates she’d like me to interview next

To get in touch with Susan, email her at susan.antebi@utoronto.ca or contact her on Facebook.