AECY Co-Hosts Conference at Yale on ‘Universities and the Histories of Race, Science, and Medicine’
Hayley*, a PhD student at Yale, reflects on her and AECY’s experience co-hosting a conference on campus on ‘Universities and the Histories of Race, Science, and Medicine.’
Hayley Maritza Serpa GSAS’30 (she/her/ella) is a PhD student in the Program in the History of Science and Medicine.
From February 27 to March 1, 2025, the AECY co-hosted the 26th Annual Conference of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition.
Thursday Documentary Screening - BELLY OF THE BEAST (2020)
We were honored to kick-off our conference weekend with a screening of the documentary BELLY OF THE BEAST (2020) and a panel discussion with film director Erika Cohn and Kelli Dillon, Co-Chairperson for the Empowerment Congress Southeast Neighborhood Council. The film sheds light on forced sterilizations at the Central California Women’s Facility, the world’s largest women’s prison. It highlights the story and resistance of Kelli, who was herself forcibly sterilized, in fighting for reparations and addressing the long legacy of eugenics. The discussion and film were both truly inspiring, and we could not be more grateful to both Kelli and Erika.
Erika Cohn, Kelli Dillon, and Daniel HoSang at the panel discussion after the screening of Belly of the Beast.
Friday: Grounding Ourselves in the History of Eugenics
Our first panel day began with a captivating keynote speech from Professor Osagie Obasogie (UC Berkeley), also Project Lead of the Los Angeles Review of Books ‘Legacies of Eugenics’ essay series. His anti-eugenics work began in 2018, when the UC Berkeley School of Public Health shared a funding opportunity to his inbox from the ‘Genealogical Eugenics Institute Fund.’
Friday’s panels featured topics such as the Early History of Ideas of Scientific Racism, Eugenics and Its Afterlives at Yale, and Histories of Science, Racism, and Colonialism in Museums. The day concluded with a walking tour of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, where AECY has co-curated a case on eugenics and psychological testing at Yale.
The AECY panel delved into the many contributions Yale has made to the American eugenics movement across various fields of study. AECY Faculty Advisor and Professor Daniel HoSang moderated the panel. Professor Ayah Nuriddin served as Discussant, offering insightful questions and comments. AECY researchers (also recent Class of 2025 alum – congrats!) Tara Bhat and Mayah Monthrope first provided the audience with a general overview of the history of eugenics at Yale. Alana Slavin, a Psychiatry Resident Physician at Yale Health, then showcased the role of eugenics in ongoing practices in psychiatry and in the history of psychiatry at Yale. Marco Cenabre, English Language Arts Lead Teacher at New Haven Public Schools, highlighted the ongoing legacy of eugenics in education and in the standardized testing system. The final panel speaker was Stacy Cordova Diaz, a California teacher, advocate, and author, whose great aunt Mary Franco was forcibly sterilized at Pacific Colony in California. Stacy is a longtime collaborator of AECY and has been a constant source of solidarity and support for our Collective.
From Left to Right: Stacy Cordova Diaz, Marco Cenabre, Alana Slavin, Daniel Martinez HoSang, Mayah Monthrope, Tara Bhat
Saturday: Combatting Eugenics Today
Saturday included panels discussing critical topics such as Anti-Racism and Race Science in the 20th Century and the Contemporary Impacts of Medical and Scientific Racism. It featured exciting ongoing research in the history of eugenics and racism more broadly from scholars in the field like Jenny Reardon (UC Santa Cruz), Rana Hogarth (UPenn), and Sebastián Gil-Riaño (UPenn). Gil-Riaño is author of The Remnants of Race Science: UNESCO and Economic Development in the Global South (2023) and presented his current research on the history of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Hogarth, author of Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840 (2017), powerfully illustrated the connections between the logics that perpetuated slavery and eugenic logics. Hogarth is an alum of Yale HSHM.
The following panel on Contemporary Impacts featured insights from community health advocates like Tomeka Frieson from the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, and from the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice at the Yale School of Medicine. The concluding roundtable of the conference reflected on the legacies of scientific racism and eugenics, and discussed ways forward for educating the public about these histories and dangers. It saw Daniel HoSang in conversation with a group of leading scholars in the field, including David Blight, Rana Hogarth, Terrence Keel, Ayah Nuriddin, and Brandon Ogbunu.
AECY is immensely grateful to all our collaborators for helping us organize this important event. Thank you so much. I know that I learned so much from attending this conference and am already excitedly looking forward to the AECY projects on the horizon. Looking forward to writing more soon!