Critical Intersections: Conversations on History, Race, and Science

Scholars of the history of science, education, religious studies, social history, medical anthropology, and Black Studies will be invited to ponder how the various "biopoitical battle lines" of the twentieth century have shaped American society and global politics. Who is counted? How are they represented or studied? How have scientific disciplines interacted with or influenced categories of race, ethnicity, and sexuality? How have systems of production, of education, of welfare, and other major structures that organize modern life differently impacted populations across the globe based on how well they fit definitions of the norm? How are the problems of development and inequality connected?
 
Edgar Arcenaux and Kurt Forman will create a printed artwork in conversation with the event.
 

For its inaugural year of 2020-2021, the "Critical Intersections: Conversations on Race, History, and Science" seminar series is dedicated to the history leading up to and beyond eugenics. The events are jointly organized by faculty in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences [Maura Dykstra (Assistant Professor of History), Jennifer Jahner (Professor of English), and Hillary Mushkin (Research Professor of Art and Design)] and University Archivist Peter Collopy. Artists have been invited to participate in these events as part of the Caltech-Huntington Program in Visual Culture. Their participation in this series is supported by the James Michelin Distinguished Visitors Program.
 
For more information, please contact Cecilia Lu by email at cecilial@caltech.edu.