Alexandra Fair

Alexandra Fair

Alexandra Fair photo

Research Interests: Eugenic ideology, reproductive justice, African American history

Alexandra Fair is a doctoral student in African American Studies. She completed her A.M. degree History of Science in May of 2022. Her reserach examines the linguistic strategies Anglo-American eugenic theorists use to reconstitute eugenic ideology in modern academic and political spaces. She argues that transatlantic networks of eugenic theorists sustained hierarchical conversations about the relative value of human reproduction in increasingly public spaces.

Prior to attending Harvard, Alexandra also conducted research on reproductive healthcare and policy for the International Planned Parenthood affiliate Sex og Politikk in Oslo, Norway and the D.C.-based non-profit Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity.

Previous Degrees:

B.A. Miami University

M.A. Miami University

M.A. University of Reading (Fullbright-University of Reading Postgraduate Award, 2019-2020)

A.M. Harvard University

Conference Papers:

"I'm afraid I do not know how to start finding out anything": When Eugenics Policy Disconnects Feminist Theory from Feminist Activism," Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual Conference, 2020.

“Mind Has to Catch Up on Sex: Sex Education and Sexual Norms in the Hull House of Chicago” paper at International Standing Committee on the History of Education Conference, Loyola University, August 2016.

Presentations:

Shockley's Sperm Was Actually Pretty Good: Eugenic Ideology in Public Spaces in post-Civil Rights America, Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, American Philosophical Society, January 2019.

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