Scientific racism – the misuse of science to justify racial hierarchies and inequalities – has a long history in the evolutionary human sciences. Evolutionary research has frequently been used and misused to claim the relative advantage or disadvantage of particular racial groups is due to inherent differences between races, and to argue for the inevitability of racial hierarchies and inequalities. Such work has significant real world impact; it is used to argue against social policies which attempt to create more equal and just societies, and to incite conflict between racial groups for political purposes. It also damages science.

Evolutionary Human Sciences is putting together a themed collection on scientific racism, and invites contributions which are broadly relevant to this topic. We are keen to include a diverse range of perspectives and authors; to include contributions from multiple disciplines including (but not limited to) genetics, history, anthropology, psychology and biology; and to include lived experiences to illustrate the many negative impacts of scientific racism.

Questions we’d like the special collection to consider include:

• What is scientific racism?
• What are the origins of scientific racism?
• How does scientific racism manifest?
• How do we raise awareness?
• How do we counter it?
• (Once eradicated) how do we stop it happening again?

Deadline for papers is 31st August 2025, but we strongly encourage earlier submissions. Papers in EHS special collections are published online as soon as they’re accepted.

If you are considering submitting a paper, please get in touch with the editors, Abbey Page, Sarah Myers and Rebecca Sear, by emailing an outline or abstract for your proposed paper to [email protected].