Technologies of Race: Eugenics, Biopolitics and Nation-Building in Interwar Europe

Type: 
Workshop
Audience: 
Open to the Public
Sunday, June 27, 2004 - 6:00pm
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Date: 
Sunday, June 27, 2004 - 6:00pm to Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - 9:00pm

Sunday 27 June 2004
Arrival and registration of participants
Welcoming Reception

(18.00 - 20.00)

Monday 28 June 2004

9.30 - 10.00 Opening Lecture
Professor Paul J. Weindling, (Welcome Trust Research Professor in the History of Medicine, Oxford Brookes University): "Confronting Nazi Race Ideology: Central European Critics"

10.00-12.15 Session 1. Ethnography, Physical Anthropology and Racial Sciences
Chair: Professor Attila Pók (Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

  • 10.00-10.25 Dr. Christian Promitzer (Department of Southeastern European History, University of Graz): "Catching up with Europe"? - Engineers of "Racial Science" and Eugenics in the Balkans (from the Turn of the 20th Century until the Beginning of the Second World War)
  • 10.25-10.50 Dr. Egbert Klautke (University College London): "Völkerpsychologie, Race Psychology and Its Implementation: Egon von Eickstedt and Rudolf Hippius"
  • 10.50-11.15 Dr. Margit Berner (Natural History Museum, Vienna): "From Prisoners of War Studies to the Proof of Paternity. Physical Anthropologists Measuring 'the Other'"

11.15-12.15 Discussion

12.15-14.00 Lunch
 

14.00-16.15 Session 2. Eugenics and Racial Science
Chair: Dr. Randall Hansen (Merton College, Oxford University)

  • 14.00-14.25 Michal Simunek, (PhD Candidate, Philosophy and History of Sciences Department, Charles University, Prague): "Between 'Stirpi Culture,' 'Generative Hygiene' and the 'Science of Eugenics:' Early Reception of Eugenics in the Czech Scientific Community, 1900-1920"
  • 14.25-14.50 Dr. Kamila Uzarczyk (Department of Humanistic Sciences in Medicine, Medical University of Wroclaw): "Eugenics and Race Purity: Towards the Improvement of The Nation's Health in Interwar Poland"
  • 14.50-15.15 Dr. Ken Kalling (Estonian National Defence College): "Eugenics and A Small Nation's Self Perception: Estonia in the History of Eugenics"

15.15-16.15 Discussion

16.15-16.30 Coffee Break

16.30-18.45 Session 3. Eugenics through Health Policies
Chair: Professor Paul Weindling (Oxford Brookes University)

  • 16.30-16.55 Dr. Marius Turda (SSEES/University College London): "Anti-Semitism and Pathology: Medical Doctors and the Idea of Romanian Racial Purity"
  • 16.55-17.20 Mag. Monica Löscher (Institute of History, University of Vienna): "Eugenics and the Catholic Church in Austria in the Interwar Period"
  • 17.20-17.45 Dr. Herwig Czech (Institute for the History of Medicine, Vienna): "Vienna's Main Health Office and 'Genetic and Racial Hygiene"

17.45-18.45 Discussion

Tuesday 29 June 2004

10.00-12.40 Session 4. Eugenics and 'Racial Programmes'
Chair: Dr. Margit Berner (Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum Vienna)

  • 10.00-10.25 Dr. Aristotle Kallis (University of Lancaster): "Medical Totalitarianism' and Nazi Racial Genocide"
  • 10.25-10.50 Dr. Randall Hansen (Oxford University Press): "Eugenics, Gender, and Sterilization in Interwar Britain"
  • 10.50 - 11.15 Mag. Claudia Spring (Institute of History, University of Vienna): "Die Gauleiter der Ostmark forden das Gesetz dringend. Heil Hitler - The Delay of the Introduction of the Sterilization Law in the 'Ostmark' from March 1938 to January 1940"
  • 10.15 - 11.40 Professor Maria Tescher-Nicola (Museum of Natural History, Vienna): "Hands-On Approach of A Discipline: From Investigations of Refugees to the Genetic and Racial Assessment in Pre-1938 Austria"

11.40-12.40 Discussion

12.40 - 14.00 Lunch

14.00-16.15 Session 5. Race and Nation in Post-Versailles Europe
Chair: Professor Sorin Antohi (CEU, Pasts. Inc)

  • 14.00-14.25 Gwenyth Jones (PhD Candidate SSEES/University College London): "Dezso Szábo's Literary Rassenschutz Programme: Hungary, 1919"
  • 14.25-14.50 Dr. Sevasti Trubeta (Freie Universität, Berlin): "Negotiating National Concepts in Anthropological terms: the Hellenic Anthropological Association (1924-1969)"
  • 14.50 - 15.15 Tudor Georgescu (Oxford Brookes University): "German Eugenic Characterisation and Classification of 'Volksdeutsch' in Romania in Interwar Period"

15.15-16.15 Discussion 

16.15-16.30 Coffee Break

16.30-18.45 Session 6. Bio-politics in Interwar Europe
Chair: Dr. Aristotle Kallis (Lancaster University)

  • 16.30-16.55 Rory Yeomans (PhD Candidate SSEES/University College London: "Legitimate 'Scientific' Research or a Blueprint for Genocide? Ethnography, Racial Biology and Populist Nationalism in Croatia before 1941"
  • 16.55-17.20 Valentin Sandulescu (PhD Candidate, CEU): "'You Have to Become Another:' The Regenerative Project of the Romanian Legionary Movement in the Interwar Period"
  • 17.20-17.45 Mag. Thomas Mayer (Institute of History, University of Vienna): "The Eugenic Movement in Austria and the Relationship with the State Authorities"

17.45-18.45 Discussion

18.45 - 19.15 Final Remarks

19.15 - 21.00 Dinner

Participants in the Workshop:

  1. Professor Paul Weindling, Oxford Brookes University
  2. Professor Sorin Antohi, Central European University
  3. Professor Attila Pók, The Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
  4. Dr. Marius Turda, SSEES/UCL
  5. Dr. Aristotle Kallis, University of Lancaster.
  6. Dr. Ken Kalling, Estonian National Defence College
  7. Dr. Kamila Uzarczyk Department of Humanistic Sciences in Medicine, Medical University of Wroclaw
  8. Dr. Randall Hansen, Oxford University
  9. Michal Simunek, Faculty of Science, Philosophy and History of Sciences Department, Charles University Prague
  10. Mag. Thomas Mayer, Institute of History, University of Vienna
  11. Dr. Sevasti Trubeta, Freie Universität, Berlin
  12. Dr. Egbert Klautke, UCL
  13. Rory Yeomans, SSEES/UCL
  14. Dr. Christian Promitzer, Department of Southeastern European History, University Graz.
  15. Gwenyth Jones, PhD candidate, SSEES/UCL
  16. Valentin Sandulescu, PhD candidate CEU
  17. Mag. Monica Löscher, Institute of History, University of Vienna
  18. Dr. Margit Berner, Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum, Vienna
  19. Mag. Claudia Spring, Institute of History, University of Vienna
  20. Herwig Czech, Institute for the History of Medicine, University of Vienna
  21. Tudor Georgescu, Oxford Brookes University
  22. Professor Maria Teschler-Nicola, Natural History Museum Vienna

The organizers gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the following institutions Pasts, Inc. Institute for Historical Studies (Budapest), History Department (Central European University, Budapest), History Department (Oxford Brookes University) and Wellcome Trust in the History of Medicine (London)