M. Edith Sklaroff

Picture of M. Edith Sklaroff

Ph.D. Student in Political Theory

M. Edith Sklaroff is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation "Anti-Eugenics: Theory and Practice in the Twentieth Century" takes up resistances to eugenics throughout the United States and its colonies, weaving together feminist political theory, disability studies, and Marxism to develop an account of emancipatory politics wielded against eugenicism. Her work draws on archival research to make a nuanced case for the importance of recognizing the recurrent patterns of eugenic logic, particularly in elite politics and argues that anti-eugenics is a helpful and contemporarily salient lens through which to view liberation today. Sklaroff's research interests also include family abolition, reproductive justice, and the intersection of political theory and public policy. Her other written work includes a treatment of motherhood as a political identity, as well as a close examination of the political theory of Susan Sontag. She has a B.A. from the University of Chicago in Comparative Literature with a minor in Classical Studies.