Faculty of Arts & Science
Sociology

Over the past year, MA students Rachel Shields and Georgia Dale worked on a research project run by Dr. Claudia Malacrida concerning eugenics and institutionalization in Alberta, under the umbrella of the Living Archives on Eugenics project, headed out of the University of Alberta.

Rachel and Georgia worked on obtaining ethics clearance and produced a handbook for interviewing vulnerable people on sensitive subjects, which will be used in several projects relating to eugenics, newgenics and disability in the province both historically and in the current context.

In Alberta right up to the early 1970’s, the Sexual Sterilization Act permitted the involuntary sterilization of citizens deemed to be ‘defective’. Collecting their life stories is a way to make sure this dark chapter of Alberta’s history is not lost to us.

Dr. Malacrida has been working  collecting life histories and conducting archival work on eugenics and the Michener Center, where much of the eugenic sterilization work was done, for the past decade.

The two MA students’ work also relates strongly to disability issues. Rachel’s MA thesis explores continuities between historical eugenic discourse and contemporary white supremacist discourse, while Georgia’s project examines critically the challenges embedded in practices of inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities.

(Pictured above are MA students Rachel Shields and Georgia Dale.)