Eugenics, demography and academia: an ongoing relationship

Eugenics – the ideology that human populations can be ‘improved’ through policies such as selective reproduction – emerged as a popular political movement in the early 20th century. During this period, academia was instrumental in promoting eugenics, and eugenics was influential in the development of several academic disciplines. Its popularity ostensibly waned during the late 20th century, but eugenic ideology never went away, and is now resurging. In this talk, I briefly consider the historical relationship between the academic discipline of demography and eugenics, but mostly concentrate on the 21st century revival of eugenic ideology. I focus particularly on the issue of scientific racism – the misuse of science to justify racial inequalities and hierarchies. Scientific racism aims to further the ideology that certain people and groups are inferior to others, a fundamental principle of eugenics. I end by discussing how academia can counter this exploitation of the research community for political ends.