WTF Am I Doing?

This:

My dissertation, “Is a Laugh Treason?” Caricature, Slavery, and Citizenship in the Age of Revolution, considers print culture, specifically caricature, in the Atlantic World from 1760 to 1848. My work situates the history of eighteenth century caricature and capitalism as a history of bodies in transit, both literally and figuratively. This movement created within the bodies an increased meaning — as they circulated as laborers, consumers, and commodities, they signified and translated their social and political status in print. In this context, representations of the body become vital to our understanding of the nascent modern socio-political landscape. An analysis of what I call “information capital” requires discussion not only of the circulation of eighteenth century printed materials — such as Atlantic print pamphlets, periodicals, correspondences, and broadsides — but also the process of meaning-making in personhood and citizenship. As yet, a critical race theory that examines caricature and print culture of the eighteenth century Atlantic remains underdeveloped. My project is designed to fill that void and will explain how artistic production and commercial circulation of the printed word and image were central to discourses of racial hierarchy and modes of resistance in the revolutionary Atlantic World.

Update: Thanks for the encouragement! I just hope I can actually pull it off.