ms. nurridin: it has been, yes. it is a tough call because there are a lot of questions of when do we sort of go wrong with eugenics. a lot of historical actors i look at in my work really believed there was a right way to do eugenics and a wrong way to do eugenics. nowadays it is a bit more controversial because of the types of associations we have with the term. the questions never really go away. the idea we can improve people on a biological level is still inflected in a lot of scientific practice. susan: as you pursue your phd you have a particular area of interest. would you explain what you are delving into? >> it is still a very preliminary but what i'm interested in looking at is the ways in which african americans use these ideas of racial science to think about racial improvement and racial equality. thinking about how science and medicine can be mobilized for the political project of black liberation. susan: what are some key dates in the study of eugenics and the black population? ms. nurridin: key date