Prejudice in Power: Contesting the pseudoscience of superiority
Prejudice in Power is a programme of cultural activism for change against structural discrimination. It explores how eugenics has marginalised voices and shaped society.
Eugenic thinking is present in the racism, ableism, homophobia and reproductive controls we see today. This programme will take a critical look at UCL’s history of eugenics and its ongoing impact through the structural inequities eugenic thinking left as a legacy.
As a part of this programme, we are running a series of co-created projects working with communities and marginalised groups, a new Fellowship engaging with our collections and building on current work, and collating content and resources responding to UCL's legacies of eugenics.
Prejudice in Power is led by UCL's Museums & Cultural Programmes and Special Collections (part of Library, Culture, Collections and Open Science) in collaboration with a working group of teams from across UCL and an Advisory Board.
Sensitive content
Please note: This programme addresses eugenics and its legacies. Our content deals with conversations about racism, colonialism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and class warfare. Please take care when accessing any resources.
Using models of collaboration and co-creation, UCL is undertaking a three-year programme responding to UCL’s historic role in promoting eugenics and examining the legacies of this pseudoscience in a contemporary context.
Access a range of resources about the history of eugenics, its legacies and how racism, ableism, sexism and class warfare are embedded in our ways of thinking about and perceiving others.
Hear about our Co-Creation Projects drawing on UCL's collections and archives, and working with communities to share the lived experiences of those impacted and excluded by eugenic ideas.
UCL’s Public Art and Cultural & Community Engagement team are piloting a project as part of the Prejudice in Power programme to explore the role of arts-based methods in responding to UCL’s historic role in eugenics.
Dr Ishita Marwah joins UCL as our Prejudice in Power Fellow, exploring the tension between science’s eugenicist heritage and the lived experiences of marginalised people.
In 2018, UCL's then Provost, Professor Michael Arthur, commissioned an inquiry led by Professor Iyiola Solanke, to look at UCL’s historical role in, and the current status of, the teaching and study of the history of eugenics.
A three-year project covering the education-related recommendations from the Eugenics Inquiry, working with the UCL community to develop the teaching provision of our history and critical analysis of eugenics.