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A two-day interdisciplinary symposium with keynote speaker Nadia Abu El-Haj (Barnard College & Columbia University).
With recent advances in the biosciences, such as second-generation genomic sequencing, advanced techniques in assisted conception, and the prediction of inheritable diseases, many aspects of individual identities— from ethnicity to genealogy to disease susceptibility— have been problematized. DNA is now being “read” by scientists to articulate a molecular basis for many historical and social phenomena, such as individuals’ membership in ethnic or national groups, as well as renewing older concerns about social control of populations through genetics. But what do these new kinds of genetic readings do for states and their citizens? To what extent have the genetic sciences expanded or circumscribed the ways of authorizing ethnic and national belonging? How has research in population genetics and human biogeography affected legal and political rights to citizenship, and territorial disputes? Are biological sciences, technologies, and society entangled to the point of being co-produced, and if so in what ways? This symposium tackles these questions from a global perspective, with the hope of fostering dialogue across disciplinary divides and geographical regions.
Organizers: Elise K. Burton (PhD Candidate, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard) and Ian V. McGonigle (Visiting Fellow, Program on Science, Technology, and Society, Harvard Kennedy School of Government)
Visit the symposium website for a full schedule and to register.
Contact: Elise K. Burton
Sponsor(s): Program on Science, Technology and Society at the Kennedy School of Government; Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; Committee on African Studies; Center for Middle Eastern Studies; Department of Anthropology; Department of African and African-American Studies; Department of the History of Science