History in the Education of Scientists: Encouraging Judgment and Social Action

The authors of this essay reflect on the experience of co-teaching a course on the history of genetics and race. The collaboration has pushed them both-a historian of science and a biologist-to consider how to make space for moral and scientific judgment in a history classroom. Drawing on examples from the course, they argue that it is possible to encourage social action and thoughtful critiques of past and current science without succumbing to a whiggish narrative of progress.