heritage Archives | Professor Joe Cain

Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) commemorative plaque on UCL Charles Bell Building | ProfJoeCain

Reviewing Commemorations: A Strategy for Executive Action

In a recent blog post on Lessons About Renaming University Buildings, I developed some key concepts to focus discussions about renaming commemorative objects at universities. The aim was to assist in building a strategy for […]

Commemoration for service in the Great War, 1914-1919, University College London (UCL) | ProfJoeCain

Lessons About Renaming University Buildings

Summary: The argument builds on several steps. First, naming is a commemorative act. These acts support heritage stories. Conflicts over renaming really are conflicts between heritage stories. These conflicts cannot be resolved by appealing to […]

Charles Darwin Blue Plaque on Gower Street London WC1 | ProfJoeCain

Darwinian Heritage on Gower Street at UCL

English Heritage commemorates Charles Darwin with a blue plaque located on Gower Street in Bloomsbury, central London. The “Darwin plaque” is fixed to the Darwin Building, one of the substantial science buildings of University College […]

Majority of members on UCL's Eugenics Inquiry Withdraw Support for Chair's Report

Review of UCL Eugenics Inquiry: Reasons to Reject Recommendations From Chair

The Inquiry into the History of Eugenics at UCL presented the chair’s individual views as a report to UCL President and Provost Professor Michael Arthur in February 2020. He received that report, but he also received […]

Review of UCL Eugenics Inquiry: Why I Didn’t Sign that Eugenics Report

I served on UCL’s Inquiry into the History of Eugenics. I withdrew my support for the chair’s report, which is published today. Together with nine other colleagues also serving on this committee, I and they […]

Review of UCL Eugenics Inquiry: Failure on Teaching and Study

The Inquiry into the History of Eugenics at UCL was expected to report on how we teach and study eugenics in the university. This instruction about teaching was included in our Terms of Reference: “To […]

Students protest at University College London (UCL) during scandal over London Conference on Intelligence (LCI) January 2018

Review of UCL Eugenics Inquiry: Failure on London Conference on Intelligence (LCI)

The chair’s report from the Investigation into the History of Eugenics at UCL is published today. It did not investigate the London Conference on Intelligence (LCI). That’s odd. I thought that Inquiry was created to […]

University College London (UCL) Wilkins Building at night | ProfJoeCain

Terms of Reference for UCL’s Eugenics Inquiry

The “Inquiry into the History of Eugenics at UCL,” also referred to as the “Eugenics Inquiry,” and the “Eugenics Investigation” operated at University College London (UCL) between November 2018 and February 2020. It was a university […]

UCL Galton Lecture Theatre - plaque on door - ProfJoeCain

Time Has Run Out for Francis Galton at UCL

Francis Galton was a bad piece of work. His racist, nativist, supremacist views are antithetical to UCL’s vision and values. He is no role model for me. He should be no role model for you. […]

Profesor Karl Pearson at desk in Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics

Mental Deficiency Act 1913 (UK) and Karl Pearson’s Absence

I was reading Angelique Richardson’s 2014 TLS piece on the history of the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 (UK), which came into effect 1914 and was repealed in 1968. It inspired me to review that Act […]