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Michelle
Spektor
PhD Candidate in
History, Anthropology,
and Science, Technology,
and Society at the
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
Quantifying the
“National Physique”:
Deterioration,
Degeneracy, and the
Proposed British
National
Anthropometric Survey
of 1904
12:15-1:30 pm
Monday, Jan 31, 2022
Virtual via Zoom |
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Abstract: Amidst
fears of national decline, the
British government convened an
Inter-departmental Committee in
1903 to investigate alleged
“physical deterioration” in the
population. After consulting
anthropologists from the British
Association for the Advancement
of Science (BAAS), the
Inter-departmental Committee
recommended a National
Anthropometric Survey – a
large-scale collection and
investigation of British
citizens’ body measurements – to
assess the “national physique.”
This talk examines how the
Survey emerged as a solution for
these concerns, and how its
design was shaped by the
Inter-departmental Committee’s
aims to measure population
health and develop social
reforms, and BAAS
anthropologists’ aims to advance
eugenic research on racial
classification and promote
anti-immigration policies. These
groups also imbued the Survey’s
methods with conflicting notions
of national belonging. The
Survey was never implemented,
but its history provides
insights into the ways
contemporary biometric
infrastructures create forms of
inclusion and exclusion. Not
simply a tool of citizen data
collection, the Survey also
intervened in politics of
industrialization, urbanization,
immigration, class, race, and
empire – dynamics that resonate
in national biometric systems
today.
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| Bio: Michelle
Spektor is a PhD Candidate in
History, Anthropology, and
Science, Technology, and Society
at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Her research
focuses on the ways national
biometric identification systems
shape state-citizen
relationships, and how past
biometric infrastructures
influence contemporary ones.
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The Harvard
STS Circle is run by the
Program on Science, Technology
and Society and co-sponsored
by the Graduate School of Arts
and Sciences, the Weatherhead
Center for International
Affairs, and the Harvard
University Center for the
Environment.
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Our
mailing address is:
Harvard STS
Program
79
JFK Street
Cambridge,
MA
02138
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