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Paper short abstract

In this paper researchers from the UncoverEd project document and examine James Africanus Horton's and Theophilus Scholes' engagement with scientific racism, as a way of offering a reappraisal of Edinburgh university's black, imperial, and global history.

Paper long abstract

From phrenologist George Combe to anatomist Robert Knox, Edinburgh university was a centre for the emergence and elaboration of scientific conceptions of race in the nineteenth century. But these theories were not uncontested. Among those who engaged with and critiqued scientific racism were Black, African and Caribbean medical students such as Sierra Leonean, James Africanus Beale Horton (who graduated from Edinburgh in 1859) and Jamaican, Theophilus Scholes (who graduated from Edinburgh in 1884). In this paper researchers from the UncoverEd project document and examine Horton and Scholes' engagement with racism and imperialism, as a way of offering a reappraisal of the university's black, imperial, and global history.