do you have the clarkson gene?
Sheila F. Weiss
Professor of History
277 Bertrand H. Snell Hall
E-mail: sheilafw@clarkson.edu
Website
Phone: 315-268-3993
Education
B.A., Northwestern University
M.A., Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University
Courses Taught
Scholarly Interests
What, if anything, was uniquely "Nazi" about human genetics under the swastika? How, if at all, does this explain why so many German biomedical professionals made the "Faustian bargain" with the Nazi state (some going as far as to undertake medical experiments on individuals without rights in concentration and extermination camps as well as "euthanasia hospitals")? These have always been the queries with which I attempted to wrestle in both my research and teaching.
Publications
"A Nazi Symbiosis: The Relationship Between Politics and Human Genetics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics" (with Thomas M. Berez), Endeavor, December 2004, pp. 172-177.
Humangenetik und Politik als wechselseitige Ressourcen: Das Kaiser-Wilhel-Institut für Anthropologie, menschliche Erblehre und Eugenik, 1927-1945. Ergebnisse 17, Vorabdrucke aus dem Forshungsprogramm "Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus" der Präsidentenkommision der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Berlin, 2004.
"German Eugenics, 1890-1933" in Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race ( Washington, D.C. and Chapel Hill: U.S. Holocaust Museum and University of North Carolina Press, 2004), pp. 15-39; 206-207.
Review of Deutsche Medizin im Dritten Reich. Karrieren vor und nach 1945, by Ernst Klee (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2001) in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, (78) 2004, 918-919.
Review, Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany: Origins, Practices and Legacies ed. by Francis R. Nicosia and Jonathan Huener ( New York: Berhahn Books, 2002) (joint review with Thomas M. Berez) Isis 94 (2003), pp. 541-43.
Presentations
"The Politics of Professional Talk: The Role of German Human Geneticists in the International Arena," 2004 History of Science Society Meeting.
Sept. 2003, German Studies Association Meeting, New Orleans, LA. Organized a session on the topic of "Genetics and Politics in Twentieth Century Germany and presented a paper entitled "'The Sword of Our Science' as a Foreign Policy Weapon: The Political Function of German Human Geneticists in International Area During the Third Reich."
November 2003, History of Science Society Meetings, Cambridge, MA. Delivered a paper entitled "Biomedical Research" for a session entitled "Mastering the Past: The History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society Under National Socialism."
Grants
"Human Heredity, Genetics, and Politics During the Third Reich," NSF ($78,748).
277 Bertrand H. Snell Hall
E-mail: sheilafw@clarkson.edu
Website
Phone: 315-268-3993
Education
B.A., Northwestern University
M.A., Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University
Courses Taught
- Science, Technology and Power
- Twentieth Century Germany
- Science, Politics, and Ethics
- History of Modern Science
- The Holocaust
- Nazi Germany
Scholarly Interests
What, if anything, was uniquely "Nazi" about human genetics under the swastika? How, if at all, does this explain why so many German biomedical professionals made the "Faustian bargain" with the Nazi state (some going as far as to undertake medical experiments on individuals without rights in concentration and extermination camps as well as "euthanasia hospitals")? These have always been the queries with which I attempted to wrestle in both my research and teaching.
Publications
"A Nazi Symbiosis: The Relationship Between Politics and Human Genetics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics" (with Thomas M. Berez), Endeavor, December 2004, pp. 172-177.
Humangenetik und Politik als wechselseitige Ressourcen: Das Kaiser-Wilhel-Institut für Anthropologie, menschliche Erblehre und Eugenik, 1927-1945. Ergebnisse 17, Vorabdrucke aus dem Forshungsprogramm "Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus" der Präsidentenkommision der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Berlin, 2004.
"German Eugenics, 1890-1933" in Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race ( Washington, D.C. and Chapel Hill: U.S. Holocaust Museum and University of North Carolina Press, 2004), pp. 15-39; 206-207.
Review of Deutsche Medizin im Dritten Reich. Karrieren vor und nach 1945, by Ernst Klee (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2001) in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, (78) 2004, 918-919.
Review, Medicine and Medical Ethics in Nazi Germany: Origins, Practices and Legacies ed. by Francis R. Nicosia and Jonathan Huener ( New York: Berhahn Books, 2002) (joint review with Thomas M. Berez) Isis 94 (2003), pp. 541-43.
Presentations
"The Politics of Professional Talk: The Role of German Human Geneticists in the International Arena," 2004 History of Science Society Meeting.
Sept. 2003, German Studies Association Meeting, New Orleans, LA. Organized a session on the topic of "Genetics and Politics in Twentieth Century Germany and presented a paper entitled "'The Sword of Our Science' as a Foreign Policy Weapon: The Political Function of German Human Geneticists in International Area During the Third Reich."
November 2003, History of Science Society Meetings, Cambridge, MA. Delivered a paper entitled "Biomedical Research" for a session entitled "Mastering the Past: The History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society Under National Socialism."
Grants
"Human Heredity, Genetics, and Politics During the Third Reich," NSF ($78,748).