Louis Agassiz: censoring the past?

On the shores of Lake Neuchâtel, at the foot of the Jeunes Rives, lies the University’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities, located in the Espace Louis Agassiz. This building is named after a great 19th-century Swiss-American scientist^th In the 19th century, Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz became a professor at the Neuchâtel Academy, which would later become what his contemporaries called «UniNE.».

But here’s the thing: they didn’t count on the self-righteous people who populate the various branches of government. Louis Agassiz was a racist, so it was imperative to remove his name from this space and replace it with the more politically correct name of Tilo Frey, who has the triple distinction of being a woman, a person of mixed heritage, and a «pioneer of equality.» The proposal was put forward by the General Council of the City of Neuchâtel and approved by the university’s administration.

I hope—though perhaps I’m wrong— that the ideology of moral hygienism isn’t so powerful within the administration of the University of Neuchâtel that it makes its highly educated members forget the absurdity of trying to censor the past for reasons tied to our current values. Let’s hope they made this decision for utilitarian, pragmatic reasons: a small university like Neuchâtel can only rely on its students to survive, so it must prove itself—if I may say so—to potential American applicants. If that is the case, we can understand them. Barely.

Nevertheless, this whole issue was brought to light by a political body, the City Council. It is to them that I direct my protest. When we honor the memory of a man like Agassiz, no one—absolutely no one—thinks it is for his racial theories, which were shared by the majority of anthropologists of his time. It is the world-renowned naturalist who is being praised—the man who co-founded the University and the Natural History Museum of Neuchâtel. The man whose contributions to zoology and geology led Harvard University to establish a chair in his honor.

But no—even though there is so much that could be done to raise the standards of universities, help foreigners integrate, and promote equal pay—we prefer to create a false problem.

Write to the author: [email protected]