This weekend I talked briefly about my work exploring the link between psychiatric policy and the eugenics movement as part of a virtual symposium on the legacy of eugenics today. This symposium was livestreamed onto YouTube and remains available here for any who wish to watch. There are also transcripts of talks available here. Please share these links freely to spread awareness about this important subject. This event provides a fantastic overview of the current state of research on eugenics and its links to the present, and highlights the urgent need for greater understanding of eugenics among clinicians, scientists, educators, policymakers, and the general public.
This event had a number of firsts for me. It was my first time connecting with so many experienced scholars and activists focused explicitly on challenging eugenics, my shortest presentation on my anti-eugenic work, and my first time presenting in front of my former thesis advisor. I was so nervous! It’s remarkable how much EASIER it is to put together a competent one-hour lecture than a competent ten-minute talk. There was so much I meant to say and didn’t get to!
At the same time, it was reassuring to notice that there were few surprises in terms of who major players are, and some of the frameworks leveraged by much more experienced scholars in this field were practically word for word things in my own notes. I’d written something the morning of Saturday’s sessions and then heard almost the exact same concept tentatively proposed by one of the other presenters! It was encouraging to feel on the same page with people who have been working in this area for decades, and it gives me a lot more confidence in terms of my analysis.
Attending narrower conferences that are explicitly oriented to challenging the prison industrial complex and the eugenics movement has also meant connecting with spaces where everyone is committed to anti-oppressive work, versus discipline-based conferences where some sessions are anti-oppressive in their commitments and others are overtly racist and carceral in nature.
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Han Koehle 