

Jess Whatcott, "Menace to the Future: A Disability and Queer History of Carceral Eugenics" (Duke UP, 2024)
Sep 7, 2024
Jess Whatcott, an expert on disability and queer history, dives into the unsettling connections between US disability institutions and early 20th-century eugenics. They shed light on the forced sterilizations in California's prisons and how these practices echo in today's detention systems. Whatcott highlights a legacy of resistance among the disabled community, critiques the concept of a 'defective class,' and argues for modern abolitionist approaches to reproductive justice. This thought-provoking conversation uncovers the ongoing implications of past ideologies on current policies.
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Intro
00:00 • 5min
Activism and Research: Navigating Archival Material in a Historical Context
05:16 • 4min
Carceral Eugenics: Confinement and Control
09:32 • 10min
The Construction of the 'Defective Class' and Its Contemporary Relevance
19:07 • 4min
Eugenics and Confinement: A Historical Perspective
22:45 • 18min
Exploring the Labor and Lives of Disabled Individuals in Institutions
40:20 • 2min
Challenging Utopias: Exclusion and Eugenics in 'Herland'
42:01 • 16min