Human Futures and Ethics Institute to Examine Eugenics for Inaugural Topic
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The Human Futures and Ethics Institute has selected the “History and Legacy of Eugenics” as its first initiative, which will include a public lecture, a JINS class and a pedagogy salon in the spring semester.
Established with a Truman Academic Innovation Grant, the Human Futures and Ethics Institute examines singular topics on an 18-month timeline, allowing for multiple modes of discussion and exploration.
Coming to prominence in the early 1900s, eugenics is the theory that humans can improve future generations by controlling who is allowed to have children. Historical applications of the movement have been commonly associated with forced sterilizations, but it also became embedded across a remarkable range of academic disciplines and cultural institutions, ultimately affecting public policy, education, public health and scientific research. Nazi Germany used eugenics to justify mass murder during World War II.
Truman is in a unique position to analyze the topic as the Special Collections Department is in possession of the Harry H. Laughlin Papers. An alumnus and former faculty member, Laughlin was an influential member of the movement, serving as the superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office for nearly 30 years. His manuscript collection was subsequently donated to the University and is available to researchers.
“We have an obligation as academics to take lessons from the past and learn from them for the future. That is one of the key reasons for creating the Human Futures and Ethics Institute,” said Kandice Grossman, assistant professor of sociology and director of the institute. “It’s easy to look back at this time in history and chalk it up as appalling, and something we would never let happen now, but we need to remember the context. Some of the top minds of the day believed in the eugenics movement, and we should understand why so we can avoid going down a similar path.”
One key component will be the JINS course “Society, Eugenics and Re-imagining Human Futures” offered in the spring semester. The seminar course examines the complicated history of eugenics and its relationship with modern and future social and ethical concerns, analyzing how ideas about human difference and social control became embedded in institutions, policies and scientific authority. The curriculum includes a series of reflective, active learning and project-based activities, including content analysis of archival documents in the Harry H. Laughlin Papers, as well as the option for a travel immersion study. Students can earn an additional one-credit hour by visiting the eugenics archives at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Truman-Yale connection is due in large part to Dr. Daniel HoSang, professor of American studies. At Yale, HoSang leads a collaborative investigation into the history and afterlives of eugenics research, documented through the Yale’s anti-eugenics collective. HoSang will visit Truman in March for a guest lecture. Details on that event will be announced in the spring semester.
More information about the events in the “History and Legacy of Eugenics” initiative will be posted on the Human Futures and Ethics Institute website as they become available. For information on the JINS course, “Society, Eugenics and Re-imagining Human Futures,” contact Grossman at kgrossman@truman.edu.
Established with a Truman Academic Innovation Grant, the Human Futures and Ethics Institute examines singular topics on an 18-month timeline, allowing for multiple modes of discussion and exploration.
Coming to prominence in the early 1900s, eugenics is the theory that humans can improve future generations by controlling who is allowed to have children. Historical applications of the movement have been commonly associated with forced sterilizations, but it also became embedded across a remarkable range of academic disciplines and cultural institutions, ultimately affecting public policy, education, public health and scientific research. Nazi Germany used eugenics to justify mass murder during World War II.
Truman is in a unique position to analyze the topic as the Special Collections Department is in possession of the Harry H. Laughlin Papers. An alumnus and former faculty member, Laughlin was an influential member of the movement, serving as the superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office for nearly 30 years. His manuscript collection was subsequently donated to the University and is available to researchers.
“We have an obligation as academics to take lessons from the past and learn from them for the future. That is one of the key reasons for creating the Human Futures and Ethics Institute,” said Kandice Grossman, assistant professor of sociology and director of the institute. “It’s easy to look back at this time in history and chalk it up as appalling, and something we would never let happen now, but we need to remember the context. Some of the top minds of the day believed in the eugenics movement, and we should understand why so we can avoid going down a similar path.”
One key component will be the JINS course “Society, Eugenics and Re-imagining Human Futures” offered in the spring semester. The seminar course examines the complicated history of eugenics and its relationship with modern and future social and ethical concerns, analyzing how ideas about human difference and social control became embedded in institutions, policies and scientific authority. The curriculum includes a series of reflective, active learning and project-based activities, including content analysis of archival documents in the Harry H. Laughlin Papers, as well as the option for a travel immersion study. Students can earn an additional one-credit hour by visiting the eugenics archives at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Truman-Yale connection is due in large part to Dr. Daniel HoSang, professor of American studies. At Yale, HoSang leads a collaborative investigation into the history and afterlives of eugenics research, documented through the Yale’s anti-eugenics collective. HoSang will visit Truman in March for a guest lecture. Details on that event will be announced in the spring semester.
More information about the events in the “History and Legacy of Eugenics” initiative will be posted on the Human Futures and Ethics Institute website as they become available. For information on the JINS course, “Society, Eugenics and Re-imagining Human Futures,” contact Grossman at kgrossman@truman.edu.
