The Controlling Heredity Exhibit will be on display in Ellis Library from March 4 – 30. The exhibit will be officially opened by a talk from Professor of German Stefani Engelstein entitled “Visions of Transparency: The Human Body and Social Order.” The talk will be in the Ellis Library Colonnade on Tuesday March 8th at 3:00 PM.
This exhibit displays and interprets some of the seminal texts that embody the eugenics movement in the United States, detailing the response of the privileged to accelerated and chaotic social change. The exhibit explores two campaigns central to the eugenics movement: restriction of the immigration of the “unfit” into the United States and the forced sterilization of so-called degenerates who were American citizens. In all, over 60,000 American citizens were sterilized.
The exhibit and lecture are part of the Life Sciences & Society Symposium series, which can be found at: http://muconf.missouri.edu/sciencessocietysymposium/AffiliatedEvents.html.