Contested legacies: R. A. Fisher in Retrospect

Conference item : Exhibition

This exhibition examines the life, work, and legacies of Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890–1962), a former student, Fellow, and President of Gonville and Caius College. In June 2020, following a student-led campaign, the College Council voted to remove a stained-glass window commemorating Fisher from the College dining hall. The months following saw the publication of a steady trickle of articles and thinkpieces from biologists, historians, and science-writers — some defending, and others criticising, the College’s decision. The purpose of this exhibition is not to celebrate nor to condemn, not to make the case that Fisher should or should not be memorialised. Indeed, it seeks to move away from the “balance-sheet” approach of most commentary on the window controversy, wherein Fisher’s good aspects (his unquestionably important contributions to science) are weighed against the bad (his eugenics advocacy and his racism). Such discourse tends to conflate History (the scholarly study and interpretation of the past) with Heritage and Memory. Decisions regarding the latter — how, who, and what we choose to memorialise — rarely follow straightforwardly from disinterested consideration of the historical facts of the matter. In every heritage decision, there is an ineliminable and constructive role for the values which the decision-makers hold dear, and which they wish to project out into the world. Part of the exhibition’s aim is to place the recent debates about Fisher’s legacy into a longer historical perspective. The global Black Lives Matter movement, and well-publicised decisions to remove the names of prominent eugenists from the University College London campus provided catalysts and precedents for the #FisherMustFall campaign of 2020. But controversies surrounding Fisher’s eugenics and racial views have a longer history. His views were challenged and critiqued by some of his scientific contemporaries, while historians of science have been shining a light on Fisher’s eugenical commitments since the 1970s. The words and actions of the last couple of years, then, can be seen as the latest episode in a long-run story. Legacies of the past are not static. They change and evolve. This exhibition attempts to capture some of the agency involved in these processes, paying attention to the work done by various parties in building, defending, challenging and critiquing Fisher’s legacies. https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/discover/fisher-21st-century/contested-legacies-ra-fisher-retrospect

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Publisher: Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge
• Publication date: 2022-04-22
• Event title: Fisher in the 21st Century
• Event location: Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, UK
• Event website: https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/discover/fisher-21st-century
• Event start date: 2022-04-21
• Event end date: 2022-04-22
• Language: English
• Subtype: Exhibition