CAREER: The Consequences of Efforts to Control Human Reproduction for Science and Medicine

This CAREER project examines how historical efforts to control human reproduction shaped the ways scientists and medical communities understand reproductive health in contemporary times. In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, scientific and medical communities worked alongside the state to “improve” the nation’s hereditary pool, including through forced sterilization of marginalized populations. This project investigates how these endeavors influenced the developing medicine of reproduction in the late 20th Century and how it continues to influence scientific knowledge and reproductive health. The study enhances undergraduate science education by introducing students to lasting issues in reproductive health and inequality. The project produces a digital archive that advances public understanding of the history of medicine, science, and health inequalities. This project uses a combination of archival methods and interviews to understand how efforts to control genetics in the population affected scientific and medical understandings and current experiences with reproduction. The research includes content analysis of scientific articles on reproductive health published from 1950 to 2000 and archived correspondence with health providers and scientists. The project also collects and analyzes oral histories with 50 people about their experiences in reproductive health and creates a new public digital archive to house these histories. Addressing these research questions offers vital contributions to the social study of medicine, science and technology studies, and broader understandings of the social and historical factors that contribute to health inequalities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.