, the BAME Action Group and the Working Group on the History of Race and Eugenics are pleased to invite you to a book launch: Historicizing Race by Marius Turda and Maria Sophie Quine (Bloomsbury, 2018). Co-author Marius Turda will introduce the book and read a few extracts. In response Sasha Coutinho, International Relations and Business Management, and Graham van Wyk, OBI, will reflect on the contribution the book makes in understanding the idea of “race” and its implications today. The...

In this seminar Gayle Davis shifts the conceptual framework from characterizations of pregnant women and motherhood more widely to those of women whose pregnancy aspirations required medical assistance, and the degree to which their desire for children was pathologised by medical professionals in postwar Britain. Offering a remarkable insight into the longevity of eugenic paradigms with regards to selecting donors for artificial insemination procedures, and the social perception thereof, the...

In this seminar Gayle Davis shifts the conceptual framework from characterizations of pregnant women and motherhood more widely to those of women whose pregnancy aspirations required medical assistance, and the degree to which their desire for children was pathologised by medical professionals in postwar Britain. Offering a remarkable insight into the longevity of eugenic paradigms with regards to selecting donors for artificial insemination procedures, and the social perception thereof, the...

In this seminar Florence Binard explores the dichotomy of ‘eugenic feminists’ in contrast to ‘feminist eugenics’ by focusing primarily on authors of the former group that understood themselves as both feminists as well as eugenicists. Binard critically investigates the works of Edith Ellis, Mary Sharlieb, Frances Swiney, Elizabeth Sloan Chester, and Caleb Saleeby towards illuminating the extent to which debates on reproduction and feminism related to the social construction of childless women...

In this seminar Florence Binard explores the dichotomy of ‘eugenic feminists’ in contrast to ‘feminist eugenics’ by focusing primarily on authors of the former group that understood themselves as both feminists as well as eugenicists. Binard critically investigates the works of Edith Ellis, Mary Sharlieb, Frances Swiney, Elizabeth Sloan Chester, and Caleb Saleeby towards illuminating the extent to which debates on reproduction and feminism related to the social construction of childless women...

In this seminar Lesley Hall investigates the relationship between feminism and eugenics through the fascinating lens of Naomi Mitchison’s fiction. JBS Haldane’s sister, and very much situated at the centre of the eugenic and literary movements of her time, Naomi Mitchison was a prolific author writing path braking historical fiction amongst other works before turning to Science Fiction. Scrutinizing her personal and political lives, this seminar focuses on three of Mitchison’s postwar works ...

In this seminar Lesley Hall investigates the relationship between feminism and eugenics through the fascinating lens of Naomi Mitchison’s fiction. JBS Haldane’s sister, and very much situated at the centre of the eugenic and literary movements of her time, Naomi Mitchison was a prolific author writing path braking historical fiction amongst other works before turning to Science Fiction. Scrutinizing her personal and political lives, this seminar focuses on three of Mitchison’s postwar works ...

This seminar offers a particularly insightful, and far ranging investigation of German eugenics before the Nazi rise to power and in its aftermath, focusing on the regime’s various policies to promote professed ‘valuable’ offspring on the one hand, and strategies to prevent and eliminate those deemed undesirable on the other by means of sterilization and euthanasia. This seminar took place at Oxford Brookes University on 30 October 2012

This seminar offers a particularly insightful, and far ranging investigation of German eugenics before the Nazi rise to power and in its aftermath, focusing on the regime’s various policies to promote professed ‘valuable’ offspring on the one hand, and strategies to prevent and eliminate those deemed undesirable on the other by means of sterilization and euthanasia. This seminar took place at Oxford Brookes University on 30 October 2012

In the larger context of arguing for recasting the twentieth century as ‘the century of woman’, this seminar seeks to highlight the role eugenics played in relationship to maternalism as an example of women’s integration in state making and modernization policies. This seminar took place at Oxford Brookes University on 16 October 2012

In the larger context of arguing for recasting the twentieth century as ‘the century of woman’, this seminar seeks to highlight the role eugenics played in relationship to maternalism as an example of women’s integration in state making and modernization policies. This seminar took place at Oxford Brookes University on 16 October 2012

This seminar addresses the main theme of the lecture series on eugenics and maternal and child health by exploring the issue of ‘maternalism’ within the framework of the feminist and marxist historiography which gave rise to this field of enquiry in the first place. And it explores the topic within the context of Italian fascism’s contradictory attempts in the 1920s and 1930s both to increase the ‘quantity’ (numbers) and improve the ‘quality’ (biology) of the Italian ‘race’. This seminar took...

This seminar addresses the main theme of the lecture series on eugenics and maternal and child health by exploring the issue of ‘maternalism’ within the framework of the feminist and marxist historiography which gave rise to this field of enquiry in the first place. And it explores the topic within the context of Italian fascism’s contradictory attempts in the 1920s and 1930s both to increase the ‘quantity’ (numbers) and improve the ‘quality’ (biology) of the Italian ‘race’. This seminar took...

This seminar’s main objective is to provide an overview of Spanish toxicology in the nineteenth-century and analyzes aspects such as the formation of a community of Spanish toxicologists and the changes produced in toxicology as a discipline. The study also discusses questions relating to the numerous definitions given for ‘poison’, and the difficulties in establishing an agreement between the scientific and legal terms, with a particular focus on an alleged poisoning case that took place in...

This seminar’s main objective is to provide an overview of Spanish toxicology in the nineteenth-century and analyzes aspects such as the formation of a community of Spanish toxicologists and the changes produced in toxicology as a discipline. The study also discusses questions relating to the numerous definitions given for ‘poison’, and the difficulties in establishing an agreement between the scientific and legal terms, with a particular focus on an alleged poisoning case that took place in...

In this Seminar, Georgia Buttina Watson offers a range of remarkable insights into how urban planning and regeneration can dramatically affect not only the local population‘s sense of self, a geographic and collective identity, but also the wider impact living condition have upon the communities' physical and mental health. A richly illustrated seminar, it investigated, amongst others, Boston’s ‘Big Dig’ redevelopment alongside her own projects such as that in Angeltown and those currently...

In this Seminar, Georgia Buttina Watson offers a range of remarkable insights into how urban planning and regeneration can dramatically affect not only the local population‘s sense of self, a geographic and collective identity, but also the wider impact living condition have upon the communities' physical and mental health. A richly illustrated seminar, it investigated, amongst others, Boston’s ‘Big Dig’ redevelopment alongside her own projects such as that in Angeltown and those currently...

This seminar offers a fascinating and wideranging discussion of the history of morphological evolution conceptually a nd empirically, with a marked emphasis on scientific methodologies and the extent to which genetic manipulation can alter the shape and appearance of specimens – such as the Drosophila mutant with legs for antenna. This seminar took place at Oxford Brookes University on 27 March 2012

This seminar offers a fascinating and wideranging discussion of the history of morphological evolution conceptually a nd empirically, with a marked emphasis on scientific methodologies and the extent to which genetic manipulation can alter the shape and appearance of specimens – such as the Drosophila mutant with legs for antenna. This seminar took place at Oxford Brookes University on 27 March 2012

This seminar examines the development of the pharmaceutical industry in the second half of the twentieth century, with a particular focus on the USA and Europe, the main centres of the large corporations and their largest markets. It analyses their growth and how they met the challenge of the evolving biotechnology industry, in the context of spiralling research and development costs, government pressures on drug prices and greater regulation. The growth of very large international or...

This seminar on ‘From Deficiency to Difficulty’ captures an historical journey made by people with learning difficulties from the objects to potential subjects of the construction of their social identities. The seminar discusses three historical phases of these constructions, from a formalisation of a condition called ‘mental deficiency’ following the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act; to the period of the entrenchment of their segregation in the inter-war years; and finally to the slow growth of...

This seminar examines the development of the pharmaceutical industry in the second half of the twentieth century, with a particular focus on the USA and Europe, the main centres of the large corporations and their largest markets. It analyses their growth and how they met the challenge of the evolving biotechnology industry, in the context of spiralling research and development costs, government pressures on drug prices and greater regulation. The growth of very large international or...

This seminar on ‘From Deficiency to Difficulty’ captures an historical journey made by people with learning difficulties from the objects to potential subjects of the construction of their social identities. The seminar discusses three historical phases of these constructions, from a formalisation of a condition called ‘mental deficiency’ following the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act; to the period of the entrenchment of their segregation in the inter-war years; and finally to the slow growth of...

In this seminar Paul Weindling, Director of Brookes’ Centre for Health, Medicine and Society, discusses the ever-changing and evolving roles of historians of medicine as seen through the prism of his work on medical research and experimentation conducted by the Third Reich. In particular, Paul detailed the various ethical pitfalls surrounding the use of data gathered under such circumstances, as well as the emotive debates surrounding the naming and memorialising of the individual victims and...