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UNT Special Collections 2025 Research Fellowship Awardee - Hannah Forsythe

Hannah Forsythe
Posted: 05/13/2025

UNT Special Collections 2025 Research Fellowship Awardee

Hannah Forsythe

Project Title

An Anatomy of Cinema: Dissecting Control, Ethics, and the Medicalized Body Across Visual Media

Project Description

My dissertation explores how the medicalized body is represented across visual media, including news broadcasts, film, and surgical recordings. At UNT, I will analyze archival materials from the KXAS-TV/NBC 5 News Collection and Morgue Records to investigate how local news visualized surgical procedures and public health narratives in the 1980s, particularly in relation to the heart, brain, uterus, and eye.

Biography

Hannah Forsythe is a Ph.D. candidate in Media Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation, An Anatomy of Cinema, examines how cinema and visual media depict the medicalized body across four key organs—the eye, brain, heart, and uterus—exploring the cultural and institutional narratives that shape public understanding of health and medical authority. Drawing from her background in art history, design history, and film studies, Hannah blends textual analysis, archival research, and ethnographic methods. Her work is situated at the intersection of media studies, medical humanities, and medical anthropology.