Mar 27
Stray Cat Film Center Kansas City, MO
TicketsBrad Bolman
Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Tulane University
Annihilation— Rotten Beauty: Mycological History
Program Description
Enter the mysterious shimmer. What will you find: a strange fungi, a screaming bear monster, or a special talk on the history of mycology from historian of science Brad Bolman? Trick question! You'll get all three when you come to see Annihilation, directed by Alex Garland and starring Natalie Portman.
Film Synopsis
A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition in which the laws of nature don't apply.
Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist and former soldier, joins a mission to uncover what happened to her husband inside Area X -- a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline. Once inside, the expedition discovers a world of mutated landscapes and creatures, as dangerous as it is beautiful, that threatens both their lives and their sanity.
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures
About the Speaker
Brad Bolman is Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Tulane University. He graduated from the Department of the History of Science in 2021.
His first book, Lab Dog: What Global Science Owes American Beagles (Chicago, 2025), traces the emergence of the laboratory dog as an experimental subject in eugenics, radiobiology, pharmacology, tobacco research, neuroscience, and more. Read more about it here or at the University of Chicago Press website.
Previous Degrees:
PhD, History of Science, Harvard University
AM, History of Science, Harvard University
AB., Social Studies, Harvard College