Legacies of Eugenics in New England Conference: Part 2

Date: 

Tuesday, October 19, 2021, 1:00pm

Location: 

Virtual Conference

Legacies of Eugenics in New England Conference - Session 2 'Eugenic Presents', 19th October, 1-4pm EST

Session 2 will continue where our first session on the 22nd September left off. It will take audiences from the past incarnations of eugenics across our four arching community threads across this conference (Vermont, Harvard, Yale and the Deaf community) that was the subject of our first session, through to an exploration into how these legacies of eugenics resurface and are remembered in these communities in our world today (schedule below). There will also be a special opening panel, looking at the deportation of the Malaga Island mixed-race community in 1912, and how this is remembered in Maine today.  The subject matter of our third session on the 16th November, will then look into the future trajectories of these eugenics legacies upon these communities, and what it is we can do to disrupt these trajectories. 

Schedule for Session 2 - 'Eugenic Presents', 19th Oct, 1-4pm...

 
1pm-1.40pm - "Making the Past Visible in the Present: Malaga Island and Eugenics in Maine"
A look at the deportation of the Malaga Island mixed-race community in 1912, and this is remembered in Maine today.
Chair: Hannah Marcus (Harvard University)
Panellists: Katie McBrien (Maine state archivist), Daniel Minter (artist) and Stephen Black (artist)
 
1.40pm-2pm - "Deaf People Can Do Anything But Hear: Deaf Exceptionalism and Modern Deaf Discourses"
An exploration by Professor Octavian Robinson, into how the lingering legacy of eugenics is apparent in contemporary conversations in Deaf Studies and among deaf communities posing as deaf exceptionalism. 
Presenter: Octavian Robinson (Gallaudet University)
 
2pm-2.30pm - "Scientific Endeavours at Harvard"
Harvard molecular biologist Natalie Kofler in conversation with Angela Saini (author of “Superior: The Return of Race Science”) around contemporary scientific endeavours at Harvard.
Chair: Natalie Kofler (Scientific Citizenship Initiative at Harvard Medical School)
Panellist: Angela Saini (journalist)
 
2.30pm-3pm - "Beyond Perkins and the Past: Eugenics in Vermont Today" 
An exploration of the ongoing impacts of Vermont eugenics and present-day responses including discussions of apologies and unnamings.
Chair: Charlene Galarneau (Harvard)
Panellist: Mercedes De Guardiola (historian)
 
3pm-3.30pm - "Yale, the academic disciplines, and the long shadow of Eugenics"
"An exploration of the influence that Eugenics research and logic has on contemporary research and knowledge production.”
Chair: Daniel Martinez HoSang (Yale University)
Panellists: Tallulah Keeley-Leclaire (Yale) and Emily Xu (Yale)
 
3.30pm-4pm - "Eugenics today in New England"
Evelynn Hammonds will invite chairs and panellists back to discuss what eugenics means today in this current pandemic and global eugenics/anti-eugenics reckoning moment.
Chair: Evelynn Hammonds (Harvard)
Panellists: Katie McBrien (Maine state archivist), Octavian Robinson (Gallaudet), Daniel Martinez HoSang (Yale), Natalie Kofler (Harvard), Charlene Galarneau (Harvard) and Mercedes De Guardiola (historian)