This talk will discuss the ways that African Americans understood and mobilized eugenics and racial science to challenge scientific racism in the twentieth century. African American physicians, scientists, scholars, and reformers believed that eugenics, along with other political and social activism, offered a solution to racial discrimination by improving the biological composition of the race. Though eugenic measures were ultimately weaponized against African Americans, there were some who believed that forms of eugenics could be mobilized to improve the health and welfare of the race. This talk will examine the ways by which African Americans respond to, reinterpret, and critique the scientific racism embedded within the eugenics movement as part of a larger discourse of black eugenics.
Event Speaker
Ayah Nuriddin, Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University
Event Information
This event is free and open to the public; Registration required. All in-person attendees must follow Columbia's COVID-19 policies. Visitors will be asked to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Online attendees will receive a Zoom link from Eventbrite. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
This event is part of the New York History of Science Lecture Series.
Sponsoring Organizations:
- The University Seminars at Columbia University
- Columbia University in the City of New York
- NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study
- The Graduate Center, City University of New York
- The New York Academy of Medicine
- The New York Academy of Sciences
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