{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86438"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86438","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Eugenic Discourse: Reproduction, Disability, and Literature in Twentieth-Century America","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Nabasny, Jake; 0000-0002-0928-2169"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ziarek, Ewa","Comparative Literature"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-21T17:22:26Z","date_published":"2025-02-21T17:22:26Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:32Z","subjects":["American history","disability studies","American literature"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86438","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ziarek, Ewa","Comparative Literature"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Nabasny, Jake; 0000-0002-0928-2169"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-02-21T17:22:26Z","2020"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["American history","disability studies","American literature"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86438"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","\"Eugenic Discourse: Reproduction, Disability, and Literature in Twentieth-Century America\" assesses historical and literary scholarship on the American Eugenics Movement as well as related figures, texts, and events. From an interdisciplinary perspective inspired by intersectional feminism and Disability Studies, this dissertation traces the Movement's influence on social understandings of health, reproduction, and disability in domains such as biology, medicine, psychology, literature, and social work. The core argument that strings together these assessments is the following: Technological and scientific innovations at the turn of the twentieth century provoked a new, specifically eugenic, understanding of the body, reproduction, and health. Diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in particular acquired an inflated biological, social, and political value. They were widely popularized and utilized to protect the nation, bolster the economy, and improve individual health. The assumptions underlying these techniques solidified into cultural facts and ways of seeing. Outside the botanist’s laboratory, eugenic strategies were used to diagnosis and treat (often through forced separation or surgical mutilation) anyone deemed \"unfit\" in spaces as diverse as prisons, hospitals, schools, almshouses, state fairs, and private residences. These techniques were able to function in so many different places on so many different types of people largely because they identified and evaluated potential rather than actual qualities. Eugenic methods of diagnosis and treatment continue to be practiced up until today, not in their original paper-based forms, but in the social understanding and political decision-making applied to issues of health, reproduction, and identity. In addition to its contributions to Disability Studies and the history of eugenics, this dissertation adds to recent, valuable discussions in cultural studies, philosophy of science, American Studies, literary criticism, Women and Gender Studies, and biopolitics. It places into context contemporary debates concerning reproduction, health, disability, and identity, all of which have been marked by America's eugenic heritage. The dissertation concludes by underscoring the American Eugenics Movement’s deep commitment to eliciting cooperation from a willing public in addition to its better-known coercive strategies. Such cooperative strategies formed the basis for eugenics' perseverance throughout the second half of the century and into today. As reproductive and genetic technologies rapidly change popular conceptions about what a person is, can be, and should be, it is more vital than ever to locate these perspectives and decisions in their historical context. This task is necessary for keeping the evolution of social attitudes in-step with technological innovation. In this way, this dissertation is more than a history of eugenics; it is also, to borrow a phrase from Gertrude Stein, a history of us.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Eugenic Discourse: Reproduction, Disability, and Literature in Twentieth-Century America"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Ziarek, Ewa","Comparative Literature"],"dc:creator":["Nabasny, Jake; 0000-0002-0928-2169"],"dc:date":["2025-02-21T17:22:26Z","2020"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","\"Eugenic Discourse: Reproduction, Disability, and Literature in Twentieth-Century America\" assesses historical and literary scholarship on the American Eugenics Movement as well as related figures, texts, and events. From an interdisciplinary perspective inspired by intersectional feminism and Disability Studies, this dissertation traces the Movement's influence on social understandings of health, reproduction, and disability in domains such as biology, medicine, psychology, literature, and social work. The core argument that strings together these assessments is the following: Technological and scientific innovations at the turn of the twentieth century provoked a new, specifically eugenic, understanding of the body, reproduction, and health. Diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in particular acquired an inflated biological, social, and political value. They were widely popularized and utilized to protect the nation, bolster the economy, and improve individual health. The assumptions underlying these techniques solidified into cultural facts and ways of seeing. Outside the botanist’s laboratory, eugenic strategies were used to diagnosis and treat (often through forced separation or surgical mutilation) anyone deemed \"unfit\" in spaces as diverse as prisons, hospitals, schools, almshouses, state fairs, and private residences. These techniques were able to function in so many different places on so many different types of people largely because they identified and evaluated potential rather than actual qualities. Eugenic methods of diagnosis and treatment continue to be practiced up until today, not in their original paper-based forms, but in the social understanding and political decision-making applied to issues of health, reproduction, and identity. In addition to its contributions to Disability Studies and the history of eugenics, this dissertation adds to recent, valuable discussions in cultural studies, philosophy of science, American Studies, literary criticism, Women and Gender Studies, and biopolitics. It places into context contemporary debates concerning reproduction, health, disability, and identity, all of which have been marked by America's eugenic heritage. The dissertation concludes by underscoring the American Eugenics Movement’s deep commitment to eliciting cooperation from a willing public in addition to its better-known coercive strategies. Such cooperative strategies formed the basis for eugenics' perseverance throughout the second half of the century and into today. As reproductive and genetic technologies rapidly change popular conceptions about what a person is, can be, and should be, it is more vital than ever to locate these perspectives and decisions in their historical context. This task is necessary for keeping the evolution of social attitudes in-step with technological innovation. In this way, this dissertation is more than a history of eugenics; it is also, to borrow a phrase from Gertrude Stein, a history of us.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86438"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["American history","disability studies","American literature"],"dc:title":["Eugenic Discourse: Reproduction, Disability, and Literature in Twentieth-Century America"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:32Z"}