Eugenics: A Social History of A Pseudo-Science (HyFlex: Zoom)

Eugenics: A Social History of A Pseudo-Science (HyFlex: Zoom)

Summer (1.5 to 2.5 hrs) | Available (Membership Required)

Online Lebanon, NH 03766 United States
Online Meeting
8/21/2026 (one day)
1:00 PM-3:00 PM EDT on Fri
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$30.00

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Eugenics: A Social History of A Pseudo-Science (HyFlex: Zoom)

Summer (1.5 to 2.5 hrs) | Available (Membership Required)

This is the Zoom registration option for this course.

Eugenics is a discredited yet still powerful belief that promotes improving human genetic quality by encouraging reproduction of people with “desirable traits” and/or reducing reproduction of people with “undesirable traits.” It has been at the heart of discriminatory social and immigration policies. Carried to extremes, it has been at the heart of genocide. We will examine the history of this belief, how it grew in global acceptance yet then rejected after WWII, and how we might see its ascendance again as technology is bringing us closer to being able to change and purposefully direct genetic content.

This course will combine lecture with class discussion.


  • There are no required books for this course.


Etkind, Paul
Paul Etkind

Paul Etkind is a retired public health epidemiologist. He is active as a Study Leader with Osher at Dartmouth and Adventures in Learning at Colby-Sawyer College; in governance within Eastman in Grantham and the Upper Valley Jewish Community in Hanover; the Sherlock Holmes Club of the Upper Valley; and writing letters to the Editor of the Valley News and other publications. He has a BA (Biology) from Clark University (1974), and an MPH (1976) and a DrPH (1998) from Yale University.