Otago Uni has confirmed that Galton House, an Otago Uni Department of Psychology building, is named after Sir Francis Galton. A world-leading psychologist, statistician, geographer, meteorologist and overall genius, he was also, unfortunately, a massive fucking racist.
Galton was an ardent eugenicist, believing that society could better itself through breeding. “Bettering itself,” of course, was code for “becoming more white.” In fact, he coined the very word “eugenics,” from the Greek eugenes, meaning “well-born”.
From the man who invented the weather map, statistical regression towards the mean and the dog whistle (yes, really), his promotion of eugenics was a rare L. Its encouragement of “pride of race” and celibacy for the “feeble-minded” went on to form the basis of a plethora of racist policies that hurt a lot of people. It was used to justify the abhorrent acts of the Holocaust, which not only saw the death of millions of Jews but also the sterilisation or murder of countless people whose traits were not seen as “desirable”. Homosexuality, disabilites, and mental illnesses were among these. The fingerprints of eugenics continued to be seen in the atrocities committed by European colonisers against indigenous peoples across the globe in the following decades.
When he wasn’t perpetuating white supremacy, the Victorian polymath became best known in the world of academia for his contributions as a statistician. His status as a stats whiz has been compared, in some instances, to that of Newton and Einstein. Yet, he appears to have no clear connection to Otago Uni, or even Aotearoa, raising the question of why a building in Ōtepoti bears his name.
There is one explaination for why Galton's name is here: in 1910, the New Zealand Eugenics Education Society was established, right here in Dunedin. Other chapters opened in Wellington and Christchurch soonafter, but everything pretty much petered out by the time WWI came along (until a brief revitalisation in the 30's). For those few years, eugenicists would've met in Dunedin and discussed Galton's work, possibly stanning him enough to name a building in his honour. That's about as close to a connection as we can find, and the University Council's records don't have much more to offer.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Tony Ballantyne said that it is difficult to confirm the “precise timing and rationale for the naming” as it “predated the digitised records of the [University] Council which date back to 2000”. He told Critic Te Ārohi that in a “changing cultural context”, the University Council has “approved the establishment of a working party that will assess the principles and practices relating to naming within the University”. So a change could be on the table - and we wouldn’t be the first Uni to drop Galton’s name.
In 2020, University College London (UCL) denamed its Galton Lecture Theatre after an extensive inquiry. Unlike Otago, UCL actually has direct linkage to Galton: it’s where his papers are kept, and it’s where he founded his eugenics laboratory. The inquiry to change the name was sparked there, as it could be here, by a student-led campaign to “decolonise” the university, which claimed that having buildings named after eugenicists was today tantamount to having them named after white supremacists. And it worked. Galton’s name was dropped.
There has been increasing recognition worldwide of the need to reassess why certain historical figures have been esteemed over others. In 2020, there were calls from Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to identify and remove colonial-era monuments and place names that symbolise racism and oppression. Like the recent resurfacing of the mathematician Alan Turing, once overlooked for his homosexuality, this denaming movement can also be an opportunity for those other than straight white men to hold a more visible place of honour.
Psychology students Amelia and Rose agreed that a reshuffling of the names of buildings at Otago could be well overdue. They noted that even the William James building is named after a psychologist who has nothing to do with the University – or Aotearoa, for that matter. “I feel like it would be cooler if it was New Zealand people,” said Rose. Amelia added that there are plenty of options within our own faculty, “There are so many lecturers on campus who are doing some fucking cool things.” Amelia went on to say she did not think landmarks should keep the name of a “colonising douchebag” just because it’s tradition: “You’ve got to recognise [when] you fucked up.”
UCL students saw a problem with the way their institution upheld one of its former members. They weighed the contributions of Galton to their Uni against the harm of his outright racism. They brought that problem to attention, and solved it. Now, Otago students see a problem with the way our institution upholds the very same name; and yet, despite not having any direct connection to Galton, the name remains. Student voices took the name down in London. Could it happen here, too?