Eugenic States: A Contextual Archive Main Menu Introduction Critical Themes in the History of Eugenics Eugenic Practices in California, Iowa, and North Carolina What We Can Say with Data

Acknowledgements

3 Introduction
This work has been carried and accomplished by a large group of people over a number of years. It is also built upon the traces created by state officials, physicians, media outlets, activists, and politicians about the lives and bodies of people who too often had little agency in the making of those traces. Each of the people mentioned in eugenic records had the human right to their own freedom and reproductive autonomy and that was very often not honored. Our project cannot speak for the people who were rendered as numbers and diagnoses by other people. We approach this project, the records, and the people they refer to with humility and a deep sense of responsibility.

In addition to recognizing the work of people listed below, we are deeply grateful to the many different community partners and testers who have shared their experiences, expertise, and feedback. This project has been supported by technical and administrative staff at Dartmouth, University of Michigan, University of Iowa, Arizona State University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dartmouth college staff, faculty, and undergraduate researchers have given their time, expertise, and labor to the creation of the contextual archive and.materials including John Bell, PhD, Carly Bobak, PhD, Caroline Casey '21, Jane Huang '25,  Kirby Phares '21, and Brinker Ferguson, PhD. We also benefited enormously from the work of Brook Vann, PhD who was a Summer Fellow on the project in 2025.

Both the first and second phases of our work on Eugenic States was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities program in Humanities Collections and Reference Resources.

Eugenic State primary authors Gianna May Sanchez, Jacqueline Wernimont, and Alexandra Minna Stern have benefited enormously from the long-term intellectual and research partnership with the dedicated and brilliant people who make up the Sterlization and Social Justice Lab. We are deeply grateful for the more than decade of conversations about the varied histories of eugenics in the United States and abroad, different disciplinary approaches to understanding the information in medical records of various types, and methods of representation, analysis, and presentation. Additionally, our project has depended on the data gathering and wrangling undertaken as part of SSJ research. Data was refactored and cleaned for the new analyses presented here by our Dartmouth team, but could not have proceeded without the data gathering, data entry, and data cleaning conducted by the SSJ teams. The initial data work was supported by grants held by the SSJ team and awarded by the National Institutes of Health. 

SSJLab Directors 
    1    Natalie Lira, PhD, Co-Director, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
    2    Nicole Novak, PhD, Co-Director, University of Iowa  
    3    Alexandra Minna Stern, PhD, Founder, Co-Director, University of California, Los Angeles 

SSJ Lab Researchers*
Karina Brunn, Undergraduate Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles 
Nihal Dolunay, Independent Researcher 
Heather Dron, PhD, Research Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles 
Bridget Easler, Undergraduate Researcher, University of Iowa 
Julianna Flores, Undergraduate Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles 
Isidro González, Graduate Researcher, University of California, Santa Barbara 
Marie Kaniecki, MPH, Research Associate and Dataset Manager, University of California, Los Angeles 
Nico Le, Undergraduate Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles 
Aubrey Mansfield, Graduate Researcher, University of Utah 
Kate O’Connor, MPH, Graduate Researcher, University of Michigan 
Johanna Schoen, PhD, North Carolina Project Lead, Rutgers 
James Tabery, Faculty Researcher, University of Utah 
Darian Thompson, Researcher, University of Iowa  
ToniAnn Treviño, PhD, Research Associate, Texas Lutheran University 
Nina Vo, Research Assistant, University of Iowa

Past Members 
    •    Teagan Andis, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Maya Buchanan, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Yasmine Buchanan, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher
    •    John Anthony Danos, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Alda Dansou, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Emma De Vera, University of Michigan, Graduate Researcher 
    •    Makayla Enchill, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Jack Feng, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Sarah Gao, MPH Candidate, Graduate Researcher, University of Michigan 
    •    Gabriella Garcia, University of Michigan, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Juan Gudino, Graduate Researcher, University of Washington 
    •    Siobán Harlow, PhD, Lab Affiliate, University of Michigan 
    •    Emmeka Hawkins, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Simran Jagirdar, Undergraduate Researcher, University of Michigan 
    •    Justin Joque, PhD, Data Visualization Specialist, University of Michigan 
    •    Sharon Kardia, PhD, Lab Affiliate, University of Michigan 
    •    Ava Kuiper, Undergraduate Researcher, University of Michigan 
    •    Naomi Marroquin, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Asya Meriweather, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Logina Mostafa, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Stella Murphy, Research Assistant, University of Iowa 
    •    Rebecca Nyangufi, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Sefonobong Obot, University of Iowa, Graduate Researcher 
    •    Ashna Patel, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Charanya Rengarajan, Undergraduate Researcher, University of Michigan 
    •    Bella Reyes, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Lilly (Aliah) Richter, Undergraduate Researcher, University of Michigan 
    •    Breana Rinker, Undergraduate Researcher, University of Iowa 
    •    Mia Seeley, Research Assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
    •    Casey Semos, University of Iowa, Graduate Researcher 
    •    Abbet Levity Smith, PhD Student, Research Assistant, University of Michigan 
    •    Nikki Stevens, Dartmouth College, Faculty Researcher 
    •    Elyse Thulin, MS, PhD Student, Graduate Researcher, University of Michigan 
    •    Lauren Vlaanderen, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Cheryl Weldon, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 
    •    Taya Westfield, University of Iowa, Undergraduate Researcher 

*Dartmouth members acknowledged above

We have discussed this work and received valuable feedback from colleagues and community members too numerous to name; we are nevertheless grateful for each of their engagements with this project. 
 

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  1. Eugenic States John Bell
  2. Introduction Jacqueline D. Wernimont