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How Sympathy Struck — A Study of American Public Opinion on Eugenics Surrounding WWII

Eugenics was once considered a popular, progressive scientific movement, butfollowing WWII and the atrocities performed by Nazi Germany, the term “eugenics” has come to connote the worst of humanity’s known crimes. The history of eugenics presents this downfall as simple fact: when news of Nazi Germany broke out, the world reacted unanimously to denounce the eugenics ideology. But it is not the nature of public opinion to turn backwards over itself when challenged, and especially not overnight. This paper aims to examine both how and why American public and scientific opinions on eugenics changed immediately following WWII. I will specifically focus on primary sources that report on or react to the news of Nazi eugenics by following the information as it was released via the New York Times, a leading American newspaper in the period of Nazi Germany. Project by Shannon Shams.

The Promise of a Cure: An Analysis of the Social Construction of Gene Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease

This Capstone project explores the social construction of science through the contradictory narrative of the SCD gene therapy CASGEVY. This contradictory narrative of CASGEVY embodies the uncertain, variable, and changing nature of the social construction of science, and highlights the role of racial politics in the field of SCD research. This project utilizes a three-pronged approach to demonstrate this social construction, and explore themes of contradiction in science. The project explores the origins of SCD gene therapy, the process of truth validation, and the environment of SCD gene therapy. Project by Shivani Mohapatra.