Mira R Waits | Appalachian State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Mira R Waits

Victorian Review, 2022

residence iii the nevi suburb of North Oxford. The physical fact of all the sisters and Dodgson b... more residence iii the nevi suburb of North Oxford. The physical fact of all the sisters and Dodgson beiiig iii the same place at the same time, recorded by this portrait, further suggests the importance of propiiiquity (physical proximity leadiiig to frequent iiiteraction) iii-developiiig opportunities for girls and women iii the second half of the niiieteenth century. Most of Dodgson's sitters and child-friends did not achieve the fame of Mrs. HumphryWard, but many took advantage of new educational opportunities to become iiivolved iii astronomy (Edith Rix), art (Ethel Hatch), and philanthropy (Agnes Ramsey, nee Wilson). If these photographs place Dodgson, as Diane Waggoner argues, "at the centre of a web of social visits with children and adults" (71), they also .hiiit at the webs of kiiiship and friendship that kn;t together his sitters. Much iiik has been spille.d on the question of Dodgson s feeliiigs toward his child-friends, but I would like to suggest that we read these photographs and his archive not to learn more about Dodgson, but to learn more about the opportunities .and challenges for the new girl iii the last third of the riineteenth century.

History of Photography, 2021

Stationed in cities, towns and villages across the Indian subcontinent, the colonial police were ... more Stationed in cities, towns and villages across the Indian subcontinent, the colonial police were a ubiquitous presence under the British Raj. Visuality was central to the policing project; the police’s effectiveness was predicated on colonial subjects’ recognition of police authority. Photographs of policepersons and police buildings, appearing in manuals, histories and memoirs, private albums, imperial educational propaganda and on postcards, testify to the pervasiveness of the policing institution within the colonial landscape and the institution’s commitment to visuality. The sheer volume of these photographs invites consideration. While existing scholarship on the colonial police and photography has largely focused on how the police harnessed the medium in their efforts to visualise colonial criminals, this article considers photography as a means of producing the police to make legible the imperial social order. Various photographs
of policepersons and police buildings – mundane and propagandistic
images when considered within the broader history of colonial Indian photography– index imperial interactions, revealing the visual language the police relied on to assert their authority.

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2018

Prison construction was among the most important infrastructural changes brought about by British... more Prison construction was among the most important infrastructural changes brought about by British rule in nineteenth-century India. Informed by the extension of liberal political philosophy into the colony, the development of the British colonial prison introduced India to a radically new system of punishment based on long-term incarceration. Unlike prisons in Europe and the United States, where moral reform was cited as the primary objective of incarceration, prisons in colonial India focused on confinement as a way of separating and classifying criminal types in order to stabilize colonial categories of difference. In Imperial Vision, Colonial Prisons: British Jails in Bengal, 1823–73, Mira Rai Waits explores nineteenth-century colonial jail plans from India's Bengal Presidency. Although colonial reformers eventually arrived at a model of prison architecture that resembled Euro-American precedents, the built form and functional arrangements of these places reflected a singular...

Across Time and Space: Architecture and the Politics of Modernity, 2017

The invention of dactylography in the nineteenth century was inextricably linked to the imperial ... more The invention of dactylography in the nineteenth century was inextricably linked to the imperial encounter between the British and their colonial subjects in India. Represented as a scientific technology, fingerprinting was used to produce abstract images of Indian bodies that could be placed within an archival system. The semiotic properties of fingerprinting along with the adaptability of a fingerprint as a visual image were critical to the successful operation of the practice. This article situates the history of fingerprinting in colonial India within a larger system of visual technology used by the British in institutions such as prisons. Through a comparison of different nineteenth-century technologies adopted in India, including photography, anthropometry, and fingerprinting, I argue for the recognition of a visual culture of fingerprinting that was key to the practice's proliferation as a science.

Victorian Review, 2022

residence iii the nevi suburb of North Oxford. The physical fact of all the sisters and Dodgson b... more residence iii the nevi suburb of North Oxford. The physical fact of all the sisters and Dodgson beiiig iii the same place at the same time, recorded by this portrait, further suggests the importance of propiiiquity (physical proximity leadiiig to frequent iiiteraction) iii-developiiig opportunities for girls and women iii the second half of the niiieteenth century. Most of Dodgson's sitters and child-friends did not achieve the fame of Mrs. HumphryWard, but many took advantage of new educational opportunities to become iiivolved iii astronomy (Edith Rix), art (Ethel Hatch), and philanthropy (Agnes Ramsey, nee Wilson). If these photographs place Dodgson, as Diane Waggoner argues, "at the centre of a web of social visits with children and adults" (71), they also .hiiit at the webs of kiiiship and friendship that kn;t together his sitters. Much iiik has been spille.d on the question of Dodgson s feeliiigs toward his child-friends, but I would like to suggest that we read these photographs and his archive not to learn more about Dodgson, but to learn more about the opportunities .and challenges for the new girl iii the last third of the riineteenth century.

History of Photography, 2021

Stationed in cities, towns and villages across the Indian subcontinent, the colonial police were ... more Stationed in cities, towns and villages across the Indian subcontinent, the colonial police were a ubiquitous presence under the British Raj. Visuality was central to the policing project; the police’s effectiveness was predicated on colonial subjects’ recognition of police authority. Photographs of policepersons and police buildings, appearing in manuals, histories and memoirs, private albums, imperial educational propaganda and on postcards, testify to the pervasiveness of the policing institution within the colonial landscape and the institution’s commitment to visuality. The sheer volume of these photographs invites consideration. While existing scholarship on the colonial police and photography has largely focused on how the police harnessed the medium in their efforts to visualise colonial criminals, this article considers photography as a means of producing the police to make legible the imperial social order. Various photographs
of policepersons and police buildings – mundane and propagandistic
images when considered within the broader history of colonial Indian photography– index imperial interactions, revealing the visual language the police relied on to assert their authority.

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2018

Prison construction was among the most important infrastructural changes brought about by British... more Prison construction was among the most important infrastructural changes brought about by British rule in nineteenth-century India. Informed by the extension of liberal political philosophy into the colony, the development of the British colonial prison introduced India to a radically new system of punishment based on long-term incarceration. Unlike prisons in Europe and the United States, where moral reform was cited as the primary objective of incarceration, prisons in colonial India focused on confinement as a way of separating and classifying criminal types in order to stabilize colonial categories of difference. In Imperial Vision, Colonial Prisons: British Jails in Bengal, 1823–73, Mira Rai Waits explores nineteenth-century colonial jail plans from India's Bengal Presidency. Although colonial reformers eventually arrived at a model of prison architecture that resembled Euro-American precedents, the built form and functional arrangements of these places reflected a singular...

Across Time and Space: Architecture and the Politics of Modernity, 2017

The invention of dactylography in the nineteenth century was inextricably linked to the imperial ... more The invention of dactylography in the nineteenth century was inextricably linked to the imperial encounter between the British and their colonial subjects in India. Represented as a scientific technology, fingerprinting was used to produce abstract images of Indian bodies that could be placed within an archival system. The semiotic properties of fingerprinting along with the adaptability of a fingerprint as a visual image were critical to the successful operation of the practice. This article situates the history of fingerprinting in colonial India within a larger system of visual technology used by the British in institutions such as prisons. Through a comparison of different nineteenth-century technologies adopted in India, including photography, anthropometry, and fingerprinting, I argue for the recognition of a visual culture of fingerprinting that was key to the practice's proliferation as a science.