Brandeis University
Symposium on Race and Genetics
February 26 in Hassenfeld/Luria, 10am-3pm
Is medication targeted to specific racial groups ethical?
What is the connection between DNA and racial profiling?
The Department of African and Afro-American Studies is pleased to present a Symposium on Race and Genetics, to facilitate a campus discussion of the promise as well as the perils of the field of Genetics.
On Monday, February 26, we will welcome to campus four distinguished scholars:
Professor Michael Blakey, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary. He directed the African Burial Ground excavation on Wall Street, New York, and he is the Director of the Institute of Historical Biology at William and Mary. The topic of his presentation will be: “How the Field of Genetics Feeds on Ideology."
Professor Alondra Nelson, Department of Sociology, Yale University, Co-editor of Race, Technology and Everyday Life (NYU Press 2001), and editor of the Social Text special issue on black diasporic culture and technology, she has done research on the socio-cultural implications of genetic science, including genetic genealogy testing.
Her presentation is entitled: "African American Root-Seeking in the Age of Genomics."
Mr. Osagie K. Obasogie is a bioethicist with the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, California. He has written several articles on race, law, bioethics, and human biotechnologies and is also a regular contributor to the blog Biopolitical Times (http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org). The title of his talk: Is Separate But Equal Now OK? The Growing Tensions Between Race Based Medicine and Civil Rights Advocacy.
Professor Linda D. Strausbaugh, Professor of Genetics, Department of Molecular & Cell Biology and Director, Center for Applied Genetics and Technology, at the the University of Connecticut. The title of her talk: Forensic Perspectives on Genetics, DNA Identification and Race.
Open and free to the public
The event is made possible by the Office of the Provost