UCL Eugenics Inquiry holds divisive Town Hall Meeting

The Pearson Building c. 1985

Source: UCL Image Store

Raphael Jucobin reports on a Town Hall meeting held by the Eugenics Inquiry on 11th October.

As part of UCL’s ongoing investigation into its links with eugenics, a Town Hall meeting was held on Friday 11th October, where the committee leading the inquiry presented their findings so far.

Chaired by Iyiola Solanke, a law professor at the University of Leeds, the inquiry was tasked with looking into UCL’s historical role in the development of eugenics by Francis Galton and Karl Pearson, as well as its current status within the university. It was also asked to give recommendations concerning the teaching of eugenics at the university, its links to racism (expanded to classism, sexism and ableism) and the naming of spaces and buildings after prominent eugenicists, such as the Pearson Building or the Galton Collection.

The second of a series of three meetings, the presentation focused primarily on findings of archival research that had been carried out. The committee began by presenting several excerpts from some of Francis Galton’s works from the end of the 19th century. In these, Galton lays out the tenets of his racist ideology, as well as his hope for it to be accepted in academic circles before being implemented in a systemic way at a state level.

The presentation then looked at the setting up of a “Eugenics Record Office’”by Galton in 1904, overseen by Karl Pearson. It is unclear whether the responsibility for this lies with UCL or the University of London, as it was located on the grounds of the former, but funding was granted by the latter institution. The office was then renamed as the Galton Eugenics Laboratory in 1907, this reference to eugenics being dropped from the name in 1963. Taking examples from his later works, the presentation showed that Pearson, until his retirement in 1933, had carried on Galton’s legacy through his research in this laboratory.

The team leading the inquiry have also carried out a number of focus groups and witness sessions, in which students and staff were able to give their opinions and ideas about the ways in which eugenics is talked about within the university — for instance, in its critical analysis in Psychology.

The meeting ended with a decidedly heated Q&A session, which elicited a range of opinions from audience members. Some voiced their concern over conflating current day politics and history, while others believed that institutional change at UCL would have to go further than simply renaming buildings.

The inquiry was called in the wake of revelations in January 2018 by The London Student that secret conferences discussing eugenics were being held in the Pearson Building. In his introductory remarks to the meeting, Provost Michael Arthur reiterated that the university had no prior knowledge of the conferences being held.

The rest of the committee’s findings, as well as the conclusions of the inquiry, will be presented in a third and final meeting in January. This will include the data collected from a survey sent out to students, which will remain online until October 31st. The committe stressed the importance of this survey in shaping the inquiry, pointing out that of the 42,000 students and 14,000 staff that make up the university, they have only received 1,000 responses so far, many incomplete. A recording of this Town Hall meeting will be uploaded on the inquiry’s website – which is yet to be built – by next month.