My dissertation examines the development, circulation, and applications of eye-tracking technologies in the late 19th and 20th centuries. In particular, I am interested in understanding how the study of eyes and their movements — a tool rooted in behaviorist logic and methodology — became a central object of study for human perception and cognition in the postwar period. New eye-tracking devices, particularly ones that used film to construct photographic depictions of eye fixation, invoked debates regarding notions of objectivity, precision, and accuracy with measurement, as well as anxieties regarding surveillance and mind control within the general public.
In addition to my primary research, I am also working on a project about luxury long-distance train travel in early 20th century America. By analyzing the marketing materials produced by railroad companies such as the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad for train lines like The Capitol Limited, I show how new forms of upper- and middle-class consumer culture and ideas about leisure travel in the US developed hand-in-hand.
Melody Slavnik-Xu 