Settler colonialism is a form of eugenics: Laura Dowd, Rose Marie Äikäs, ‘Forced Sterilizations, Ethical and Clinical Dilemmas of Social Work Under Settler-Colonial State: Utilizing Truth and Reconciliation Commission to Address Harms’, Studies in Clinical Social Work: Transforming Practice, Education and Research, 2025 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler colonialism is a form of eugenics: Laura Dowd, Rose Marie Äikäs, ‘Forced Sterilizations, Ethical and Clinical Dilemmas of Social Work Under Settler-Colonial State: Utilizing Truth and Reconciliation Commission to Address Harms’, Studies in Clinical Social Work: Transforming Practice, Education and Research, 2025

20Sep25

Abstract: BIPOC survivors of forced sterilizations have been excluded from American social work policy and clinical practice, either marginalized or entirely erased. Despite the field’s role in perpetuating racialized birth control, reconciliation is essential within the social work profession. Using Villarosa’s (2022) article “The Long Shadow of Eugenics in America” as a framework, Villarosa confronts us with the Relf sisters and the social work profession’s direct involvement in their victimization. We challenge the profession’s understanding of the Code of Ethics and accountability regarding its complicity and explore ways to center survivor voices moving forward. Our paper emphasizes settler colonialism, eugenics, processes of truth-telling and reconciliation, living survivors, and the social work profession’s role in utilizing Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to address racial trauma by challenging hegemonic narratives of what is considered truth, who has the power to produce it, and what it truly means to tell it. Applying Foucault’s microphysics of power, every social worker is implicated in challenging settler colonialism and refusing to stay silent.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed