21st century eugenics, scientific racism and the academic community

Eugenics – the ideology that human populations can be ‘improved’ through policies such as selective reproduction – emerged as a popular political movement in the early 20th century. Its popularity ostensibly waned during the late 20th century, but eugenic ideology never went away, and discussion of eugenics is now resurging.

In this talk, Rebecca will outline the instrumental role of academia in promoting eugenic ideology, and how eugenic ideology still thrives in 21st century academia.

She will focus particularly on the issue of scientific racism – the misuse of science to justify racial inequalities and hierarchies. Scientific racism aims to further the ideology that certain people and groups are inferior to others, a fundamental principle of eugenics.

Rebecca will end by discussing how academia can counter this exploitation of the research community for political ends.

This event will be particularly useful for researchers, policymakers and teachers.

Related links

• QSS and CLS seminar series
• Quantitative Social Science
• Centre for Longitudinal Studies
• Social Research Institute

Image

UCL Galton Collection: GALT 400 8 lantern slides.