Stanford
University
  • Stanford Home
  • Maps & Directions
  • Search Stanford
  • Emergency Info
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Trademarks
  • Non-Discrimination
  • Accessibility
© Stanford University.  Stanford, California 94305.
HAI Weekly Seminar with Michelle Spektor | Stanford HAI
Skip to content
  • About

    • About
    • People
    • Get Involved with HAI
    • Support HAI
    • Subscribe to Email
  • Research

    • Research
    • Fellowship Programs
    • Grants
    • Student Affinity Groups
    • Centers & Labs
    • Research Publications
    • Research Partners
  • Education

    • Education
    • Executive and Professional Education
    • Government and Policymakers
    • K-12
    • Stanford Students
  • Policy

    • Policy
    • Policy Publications
    • Policymaker Education
    • Student Opportunities
  • AI Index

    • AI Index
    • AI Index Report
    • Global Vibrancy Tool
    • People
  • News
  • Events
  • Industry
  • Centers & Labs
Navigate
  • About
  • Events
  • Careers
  • Search
Participate
  • Get Involved
  • Support HAI
  • Contact Us

Stay Up To Date

Get the latest news, advances in research, policy work, and education program updates from HAI in your inbox weekly.

Sign Up For Latest News

Your browser does not support the video tag.
eventSeminar

HAI Weekly Seminar with Michelle Spektor

Status
Past
Date
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST/PDT
Topics
Democracy
Government, Public Administration
Sciences (Social, Health, Biological, Physical)
Overview
Watch Event Recording

Quantifying the “National Physique”: Deterioration, Degeneracy, and the British National Anthropometric Survey, 1904

Overview
Watch Event Recording
Share
Link copied to clipboard!
Event Contact
Celia Clark
celia.clark@stanford.edu

Related Events

AI+Science: Accelerating Discovery
ConferenceMay 05, 20268:30 AM - 5:00 PM
May
05
2026

AI+Science: Accelerating Discovery is an interdisciplinary conference bringing together researchers across physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, neuroscience, and more to examine how AI is reshaping scientific discovery. Experts will separate hype from reality, spotlighting where AI is already enabling genuine breakthroughs and where its limits and risks remain.

Conference

AI+Science: Accelerating Discovery

May 05, 20268:30 AM - 5:00 PM

AI+Science: Accelerating Discovery is an interdisciplinary conference bringing together researchers across physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, neuroscience, and more to examine how AI is reshaping scientific discovery. Experts will separate hype from reality, spotlighting where AI is already enabling genuine breakthroughs and where its limits and risks remain.

Dan Iancu & Antonio Skillicorn | Interpretable Machine Learning and Mixed Datasets for Predicting Child Labor in Ghana’s Cocoa Sector
SeminarMar 18, 202612:00 PM - 1:15 PM
March
18
2026

Child labor remains prevalent in Ghana’s cocoa sector and is associated with adverse educational and health outcomes for children.

Seminar

Dan Iancu & Antonio Skillicorn | Interpretable Machine Learning and Mixed Datasets for Predicting Child Labor in Ghana’s Cocoa Sector

Mar 18, 202612:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Child labor remains prevalent in Ghana’s cocoa sector and is associated with adverse educational and health outcomes for children.

Caroline Meinhardt, Thomas Mullaney, Juan N. Pava, and Diyi Yang | How Can AI Support Language Digitization and Digital Inclusion?
SeminarApr 15, 202612:00 PM - 1:15 PM
April
15
2026

What does digital inclusion look like in the age of AI? Over 6,000 of the world’s 7,000-plus living languages remain digitally disadvantaged.

Seminar

Caroline Meinhardt, Thomas Mullaney, Juan N. Pava, and Diyi Yang | How Can AI Support Language Digitization and Digital Inclusion?

Apr 15, 202612:00 PM - 1:15 PM

What does digital inclusion look like in the age of AI? Over 6,000 of the world’s 7,000-plus living languages remain digitally disadvantaged.

In 1903, the United Kingdom’s War Office announced that up to 60 percent of men who presented for military enlistment were physically unfit for service. Amid growing fears about national decline, the government convened an Inter-departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration to investigate the issue. After consulting anthropologists from the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS), the Committee’s 1904 Report recommended a National Anthropometric Survey – a large-scale collection and investigation of biometric measurements of British citizens’ bodies – to determine the occurrence of physical deterioration in the population.

Relying on extensive archival research, the presentation shows how the Survey emerged as a solution for these goals and why it was never implemented. It examines how its design was shaped by (1) the Inter-departmental Committee, who hoped to measure the population’s health and develop social reforms, and (2) BAAS anthropologists who wished to advance their eugenic research on racial classification in the UK and promote anti-immigration policies. In the process, these groups imbued the Survey’s methods with varying politics of national inclusion and exclusion.
Drawing on concepts and methods from Science and Technology Studies, the paper presents the Survey as a precursor of contemporary state biometric infrastructures that demonstrates how these systems link measurements of citizens’ bodies with notions of national belonging. The Survey was not simply a tool to collect citizen data. It was also a locus of tensions over industrialization, class, urbanization, immigration, race, and empire – dynamics that resonate in biometric systems today.

Michelle Spektor
HAI-CISAC Predoctoral Fellow