Disability Science and Progressives in the American West: Buckel, Terman, and Cubberley

• In Event: Division F Vice Presidential Session: Uncovering Hidden Narratives in American Education

Abstract

Although Stanford’s Lewis Terman and Ellwood Cubberley have fascinated historians of Progressive Education, more work is necessary about how disability science affected their motivations and careers. Mixing tools from intellectual history, microhistory, the history of science, and disability studies, I analyze administrative correspondence and records to show how disability was intertwined with emerging values of science, time, and objectivity. Ultimately, Terman and Cubberley helped transform disability science from the study of healthcare for the “feebleminded” to the study of ability to manage populations. I conclude by relating my work to projects where universities are reckoning with their pasts, and I offer a theory of change for how universities can engage with memory to be reflective about difficult histories.

Author

• David T. Bates, Stanford University