Critical Exploration of the Extreme Right
The extreme right is repurposing eugenic ideas that were popular in the early 20th century, and melding them to promote the latest manifestations in white nationalism in the United States. My recent book, Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right is Warping the American Imagination, explores core ideas of the alt-right, highlighting how its exclusionary racial vision is undergirded by distorted understandings of science, misogyny, transphobia, and deep-seated anxieties about demographic change.
Eugenic Rubicon: Digital Archive of Sterilization in 20th Century California
I am working with a team to create a virtual collection of archival, primary, and interpretive materials related to the long history of eugenics in California. California was at the forefront of eugenics globally, passing the third sterilization law in the world in 1909, and performing approximately 20,000 sterilizations in state institutions until the law’s repeal in 1979. My team has digitized most of the state's sterilization recommendations, for the period 1919 to 1952, and entered them into a de-identified database, which will serve as a resource for statistical, demographic, and qualitative studies. We are exploring new modes of data visualization, data signification, and digital storytelling.
Genetics and Social Justice in Latin America
I have written several article-length studies on the intersections of genetics and social justice in Latin America. One focuses on the emergence of mtDNA testing in Argentina in the mid-1980s, which was pioneered by an international group of scientists, and pursued passionately by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo as a method of reuniting grandchildren with their grandparents after their parents had been killed by the military dictatorship (1976-1983). In addition, a colleague and I recently published an article on the development of paternity testing in Brazil in the late 20th century, that explores the emergence of new genetic technologies in that country, and the far-reaching impact of DNA testing on parenthood, the family, race, and gender relations.
The extreme right is repurposing eugenic ideas that were popular in the early 20th century, and melding them to promote the latest manifestations in white nationalism in the United States. My recent book, Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right is Warping the American Imagination, explores core ideas of the alt-right, highlighting how its exclusionary racial vision is undergirded by distorted understandings of science, misogyny, transphobia, and deep-seated anxieties about demographic change.
Eugenic Rubicon: Digital Archive of Sterilization in 20th Century California
I am working with a team to create a virtual collection of archival, primary, and interpretive materials related to the long history of eugenics in California. California was at the forefront of eugenics globally, passing the third sterilization law in the world in 1909, and performing approximately 20,000 sterilizations in state institutions until the law’s repeal in 1979. My team has digitized most of the state's sterilization recommendations, for the period 1919 to 1952, and entered them into a de-identified database, which will serve as a resource for statistical, demographic, and qualitative studies. We are exploring new modes of data visualization, data signification, and digital storytelling.
Genetics and Social Justice in Latin America
I have written several article-length studies on the intersections of genetics and social justice in Latin America. One focuses on the emergence of mtDNA testing in Argentina in the mid-1980s, which was pioneered by an international group of scientists, and pursued passionately by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo as a method of reuniting grandchildren with their grandparents after their parents had been killed by the military dictatorship (1976-1983). In addition, a colleague and I recently published an article on the development of paternity testing in Brazil in the late 20th century, that explores the emergence of new genetic technologies in that country, and the far-reaching impact of DNA testing on parenthood, the family, race, and gender relations.
