THE ACUMEN GROUP
Examining eugenics and hereditarian thought in popular culture & everyday life


We're London-bound!
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Black History Month 2023

DR. SHANTELLA
SHERMAN

The Acumen Group celebrates Black History Month UK 2023 with a month-long series of lectures examining the presence of eugenic theories in Black culture. Check here for links to our lectures, short courses, talks, screenings, book signings and broadcasts taking place the month of October from the U.K.


Engaging with history requires more than reading other scholars' works and retelling their research; it demands you go into the archives, hypothesize, theorize, and connect the past with the present and future.
-- Dr. Shantella Sherman, Winner of the 2022 ASALH Freedom Scholar Award


Eugenics. A tiny little word with an amazingly complex meaning, eugenics was once held as the science of "better breeding," and the mechanism for birthing a better, more fit society. Utilizing theories of evolution, polygenesis, phrenology, and genetic inheritance, eugenic beliefs filtered into every aspect of Western culture. Today, remnants of eugenics inform that dictate policies in education, housing, health, punishment, finance, amusements, immigration, and race. The Acumen Group deconstructs these theories to raise awareness of eugenics -- past and present, and help others address both personal and institutional bias based on eugenic ideologies.
A Look Back, with Gratitude 2022 -
A Celebration of New Endeavors 2023
Acumen Senior Editor, Christie Paschakis
In Search of Purity:
Popular Eugenics & Racial Uplift Among New Negroes 1915-1935
Winner of the 2019-2020 Best Academic History Book Award from the International Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society
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Available for purchase in our online bookstore or at book retailers worldwide
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"If you do not understand eugenics in the framing of race policies, what you believe you know of racism, Otherness, and national character, will only confuse you."
-- Dr. Shantella Sherman
Winner of 2019-2020 Best Academic Book - International Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society