The Creation of a New Kind of Human: Ellen Key, Eugenics and Education

Thesis project, Emma Vikström
Principal supervisor: Christian Lundahl
Assistant supervisors: Joakim Landahl
Assistant supervisors: Henric Bagerius

This thesis examines the relationship between education and eugenics in the beginning of the 20th century through an analysis of the educational thinker Ellen Key’s (1849–1926) work. The aim is to reconstruct and contextualise how Ellen Key combined eugenic and educational ideas in her knowledge production 1880–1926. The source material consists of a selection of Key’s published books and articles, as well as international and national correspondence.