As part of efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus, we have unfortunately had to cancel the Symposium. Plan B, involving a public website with recorded talks by all speakers and a ’Eugenics and Historical Memory’ Roundtable of Puget Sound faculty, staff, and students is in the works. All registrants will be notified when these resources and events are ready. Email kristinjohnson@pugetsound.edu if you did not register for the Symposium but would like to receive future updates. And thank you for your interest!
This interdisciplinary symposium will examine the History of Eugenics with a focus on the following questions: How did eugenics influence biology curricula and courses? What were the social, political, and cultural contexts within which eugenics became so pervasive? What are the legacies of the eugenics movement in the Pacific Northwest (including disability rights, criminal justice, attitudes toward marginalized individuals and groups, etc.)? How, as an institution and as individuals, can we best wrestle with and learn from this history?
Asking questions about and interrogating the relationship between Puget Sound’s past and present is not new: for more than a decade Puget Sound’s Race and Pedagogy Institute has been doing and supporting this difficult work. The "History of Eugenics at Puget Sound and Beyond" symposium zeroes in on the role of biology on campus, as a discipline whose past and present can not be viewed in isolation. We hope the symposium contributes to the tremendous work that has already and is being done on campus by the Race and Pedagogy Institute, the African American Studies Program, the Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement, and many faculty, staff and students.
Sponsored and supported by THE SWOPE LECTURESHIP COMMITTEE, PUGET SOUND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, THE RACE AND PEDAGOGY INSTITUTE, THE COLLIER COMMITTEE, programs in SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY, GENDER & QUEER STUDIES, BIOETHICS, AND AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES and the Departments of BIOLOGY, HISTORY, SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY, ECONOMICS, EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, AND POLITICS & GOVERNMENT.
Information on the inspiration behind the Symposium & Resources on the History of Eugenics