‘It Takes a University: Towards Critical Eugenics in the Academy’, Subhadra Das

A public lecture on the histories and legacies of eugenics in UK universities

17:00-18:00, Friday 10th May

Lecture Theatre, History Faculty, University of Oxford, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL & online via Zoom

Description:

It was during one of the last meetings of the Commission of Inquiry into the History and Legacy of Eugenics at UCL when one of my fellow committee members turned to me and said, “If you think UCL is so bad, why don’t you go and work somewhere else?”. This is a question many non-white people who work in universities have heard before and it is an emotional reminder of something we intellectually know to be true: the definition of institutional racism is when the normal functioning of an institution reproduces racist outcomes. In this talk, I will look to my own and to my colleagues’ experiences of telling critical stories about the history of eugenics at University College London with the theme of institutional racism in mind. What does it mean to belong to an institution? Whose voices are amplified, and whose are summarily dismissed? Who gets promoted, and who is told they might do better elsewhere? And in the light of this history, whose responsibility is it to confront and combat systemic injustice?

Speaker:

Subhadra Das is a writer and historian who looks at the relationship between science and society, and what those histories mean for our lives today. For nine years, she was Curator of the Science Collections at University College London, where she was also Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. Her research centres around critical approaches to the history of science, particularly race science and eugenics, along with the history of museums, particularly the colonial history of natural history museums. Subhadra is an experienced history of science communicator, and she specialises in making difficult and contentious subjects engaging to public audiences. She has written and presented podcasts, curated museum exhibitions, done stand-up comedy and regularly appears on radio and TV. Her first book Uncivilised: Ten Lies That Made The West is out now.

Attending:

Sign-up to attend in person (limited spaces), or online via zoom.