Week of Actions Against Racism: "Local elites and the manufacture of inequalities". Guided tour between history and memory

An urban tour around the figures of the Genevan savants, followed by a discussion with Floriane Morin, curator at MEG. French speaking. Sunday March the 26th, 2023, from 14:00 to 15:30.

Is science always synonymous with clairvoyance? Is it always synonymous with 'progress'?

History shows that these assertions must be qualified. Politically and socially constructed, science has legitimised and conveyed a number of inequalities. Thus, in the 19th century and for a good part of the 20th century, many scientists and scholars, blinded by their beliefs, held discriminatory discourses, ranging from racism to sexism, validism and classism, which they presented as scientific truths. In this tour, the public will meet Carl Vogt, Emile Yung and Eugène Pittard, whose theories contributed to the construction of these inequalities. Following in the footsteps of this past means questioning the persistence of inequalities and discrimination in the present, but also understanding the construction of science as an ideologically situated phenomenon.

The tour ends with an immersion in the history of the MEG and its collections, assembled by Eugène Pittard in the early 20th century.

Visit proposed within the framework of the "Week of actions against racism" in the city of Geneva, which takes place from 20 to 26 March 2023.

Caroline Montebello Historian and Guide for Dialogue en Route
Floriane Morin, Curator Africa collections and Provenance Research at MEG

Register via electronic form

Discover the full range of tours on the website of Dialogue En Route, partner of the MEG