Historical Perspectives On Contemporary Issues
Perspectives on Race Science and Scientific Racism
Gustav Mützel's "Principal Types of Mankind (After Huxley)," 1893
This series of discussions by scholars in the humanities and social sciences explores a variety of issues related to science, race, and racism.
Listen to perspectives on the history of race science and scientific racism around the world; the intersection of race with issues of class, gender, and scientific investigation; and the ways in which the pseudoscience on race continues on in the current era.
After listening, be sure to explore the "Resources" section with further reading and information for researchers.
- Elise Burton analyzes the development of genetics, race science, and race concepts in the contemporary Middle East.
- Sadiah Qureshi recounts the history of the exhibition of displayed peoples in nineteenth-century Britain, and how these shows contributed to the formation of anthropology.
- Sebastián Gil-Riaño examines how scientific articulations of human diversity have been used to both legitimize and confront notions of race and racism in the modern world.
- Rana Hogarth talks about how white physicians "medicalized" blackness in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and how African-Americans pushed back against this endeavor.
- John Jackson discusses the legacy of nineteenth-century race science on twentieth-century scientific investigation, the challenge to race science made by population genetics and anthropology, and the ways in which the pseudoscience of race continues to inform twenty-first century debates.
More coming soon!
Elise Burton
University of Toronto
Elise Burton is Assistant Professor at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the relationship between the life sciences and the formation of racial, ethnic, and national identities in the Middle East. Professor Burton's first book, Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity, shows how Middle Eastern peoples—both as scientific actors and research subjects—played an important role in the history of human genetics. Her work can be found in numerous scholarly journals including Isis, Social Studies of Science, and Comparative Studies of Science and History.
Elise Burton discuss the development of genetics, race science, and concepts of race in the Middle East. Recorded February 5, 2020.
Closed-captioning available on YouTube.
Sadiah Qureshi
University of Birmingham
Sadiah Qureshi is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Birmingham. Her research explores the ways in which racialized knowledge is produced, circulated, and mobilized in the modern world. Her first book, Peoples on Parade, provided the first substantial survey of the commercial exhibition of displayed peoples in nineteenth-century Britain. It explores the importance of such shows for intercultural encounter and notions of racial difference, and how such shows contributed to the formation of anthropology as a discipline.
Sadiah Qureshi recounts the history of the exhibition of displayed peoples in nineteenth-century Britain, and how these shows contributed to the formation of anthropology. Recorded July 6, 2020.
Closed-captioning available on YouTube.
Sebastián Gil-Riaño
University of Pennsylvania
Sebastián Gil-Riaño is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a historian of transnational science focusing on scientific conceptions of race, culture, and indigeneity in the twentieth century. By approaching these topics from the perspective of Latin America and the global South, his research investigates how scientific articulations of human diversity have been used to both legitimize and confront political formations in the modern world. Professor Gil-Riaño's work challenges the conventional geographies and periodization that have long shaped historical understandings of race and racism. His work can be found in numerous scholarly journals including Social History of Medicine, The British Journal for the History of Science, and Isis.
Sebastián Gil-Riaño examines how scientific articulations of human diversity have been used to both legitimize and confront notions of race and racism in the modern world. Recorded June 30, 2020.
Closed-captioning available on YouTube.
Rana Hogarth
University of Illinois
Rana Hogarth is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois. Her research focuses on the medical and scientific constructions of race during the era of slavery and beyond. Professor Hogarth's first book, Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840, examined how white physicians "medicalized" blackness—a term she uses to describe the process by which white physicians defined blackness as a medically significant marker of difference in slave societies of the American Atlantic. Her work can be found in numerous scholarly journals including the American Journal of Public Health, American Quarterly, and African and Black Diaspora.
Rana Hogarth talks about how white physicians "medicalized" blackness in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and how African-Americans pushed back against this endeavor. Recorded June 23, 2020.
Closed-captioning available on YouTube.
John Jackson
Michigan State University
John Jackson is Professor in the James Madison College at Michigan State University. His research and teaching focuses on the history of race and racism, particularly on the ways in which racism has been portrayed as "rational" through scientific and legal language. He has written and edited numerous books, including Social Scientists for Social Justice: Making the Case Against Segregation and Darwinism, Democracy, and Race: American Anthropology and Evolutionary Biology in the Twentieth Century. His work has appeared in leading academic journals including American Psychologist, Isis, Philosophy of Science, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly.
John Jackson discusses the legacy of nineteenth century race science on twentieth century scientific investigation, the challenge to race science made by population genetics and anthropology, and the ways in which the pseudoscience of race continues to inform twenty-first century debates. Recorded July 3, 2020.
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