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Maria Kiladi

Historian of eugenics and genetics, Research Fellow on the Legacies of Eugenics Project at University College London (UCL).

Sep 30, 2026

4:09
Does that sound like one for you, Maria?
4:11
Yeah, yeah.
4:12
I can do that and also kind of tie it to what Alex just said as well.
4:16
Um, to begin with, I mean, I guess a modern kind of a definition of eugenics could be, you know, this idea that we can somehow improve the populations in a genetic way, um, by kind of erasing traits that we think are not desirable or that we don't want anymore.
4:33
And, um, what I also wanted to add on what Alex just discussed as well, I mean, this idea of essentially revisiting histories, especially when it comes to institutions, is not really to point blame or it's not anything else than what exactly Alex especially, um, described as, you know, an exploration.
4:55
A way of starting conversations as well and to also reflect and essentially, I mean, from my point of view, quite important as well to enable people to have a starting point to reflect themselves, because not everybody has actually this opportunity, um, to be able to, [inhales] um, you know, explore institutional histories because that, um, means access.
5:16
It means kind of a privileged position, if you like, of a historian.

5 MINS LATER

10:44
And possibly it's only in the later part of the 20th century and up to now, as you're saying, Mike, that there's a bit more clarity, at least among the ge- geneticist community, about what that relationship is, i.e., that there isn't one.

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