Research Assistant for Dr. Iris Clever

Opportunity Description:

The Afterlives of Skulls: How Race Science Became a Data Science

Opportunity: 1 RA for 10 hours a week or 2 RAs for 6 hours a week

Project description

This research opportunity will help me finalize the research for my book project titled The Afterlives of Skulls: How Race Science Became a Data Science. In the book, I show how measuring skulls for the purpose of studying race, far from being an outdated scientific practice, in fact remained at the forefront of science and technology in the twentieth century. Drawing on archival research and oral histories conducted in the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, and the United States, the book uncovers a turn to quantification in the study of race across three interdependent stages: measurements (1880), statistics (1900), and computerization (1950). By tracing a shift in producing racial classifications from the anthropologist’s hands and eyes to seemingly disembodied technologies, I show how race, both as an object of study and category of analysis laid the foundation for disciplines now regarded as “objective,” including statistics and data-driven technologies like biometrics. For example, I explore how biometricians transformed skull collections and body measurements from the Global South into databases that propelled the development of the Mahalanobis distance formula, now used in machine learning and pattern recognition. The book contributes to a growing body of historical scholarship that shows how the racialization of human bodies lies at the foundation of modern science as a whole.

The project uses historical methodologies, in particular methods that are common in the history of science, medicine, and technology, such as such as reconstructing scientific practices and studying their relationship with scientific theories of the body. 

At this stage, I aim to broaden the research by examining discussions of race, biometry, and skulls in historical newspapers and other primary sources, while also engaging with relevant secondary literature. I am looking to collaborate with an undergraduate researcher who has experience conducting independent historical research using both primary and secondary sources. With my guidance, they will delve into archives to uncover and analyze materials pertinent to the project. 

Undergraduate research experience

The undergraduate researcher will be able to develop their research and communication skills alongside this project. The researcher will assist in finding, organizing, and summarizing archival material and published sources. They will also conduct historical research into early 20th-century science, medicine, and technology, imperialism, and modern racism. 

Ideally, the undergraduate researcher will have had training in historical methodology and have experience in finding and analyzing primary and secondary sources. A background in history of science is welcomed. I am looking for someone who is keen to take initiative, conduct independent research, and share their thoughts about the material studied in conversation and writing.

The undergraduate researcher will gain valuable insight into how book projects in historical studies are developed after obtaining an advanced book contract. This experience will equip them with the skills to develop their own research projects and deepen their understanding of how historians analyze and debate the past and its relevance to the present

Application Process: 

Application Form