Julia Eklund Koza’s book, “ ‘Destined to Fail:’ Carl Seashore’s World of Eugenics, Psychology, Education, and Music,” has been selected as the winner of the Outstanding Book Award for 2021 by the Curriculum Studies division of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
Koza is a professor emerita in the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and with the Mead Witter School of Music. Her widely published research primarily focuses on equity issues in education, music, and music education.
A work of intersectional analysis, ” ‘Destined to Fail’ ” dives into the relationship between eugenics and prominent U.S. psychologist and educator Carl Seashore’s views on ability, race, and gender. Koza concludes that Seashore promoted eugenics and its companion, euthenics, because he was a true believer, and she discusses the longstanding silence surrounding Seashore’s participation in eugenics.
In a letter, the AERA Curriculum Studies review committee writes that Koza’s book is “exquisitely written and patiently researched,” and they add, “The care and time that was poured into this anti-racist remembering of (Carl Seashore) cannot be underemphasized.”
“We believe that this work not only contributes significantly to the field of curriculum studies and music education themselves, but also more broadly to both the literary base and methods of the field of educational studies writ large,” the review committee writes. “It is critical to re-visioning an anti-racist future in education and educational research.”
Learn more about ” ‘Destined to Fail:’ Carl Seashore’s World of Eugenics, Psychology, Education, and Music.“