Race, Biological Causation and Scientific Communication

Department: African American Studies

Date and Time: October 10, 2014 | 2:00 PM-5:30 PM

Event Location: Newkirk Alumni Center, 450 Alumni Court.

Event Details

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-Can myriad uses of statistics produce belief that genetics largely explain racial health disparities?
-Should ancestry models be used to assess whether “African Ancestry” may account for increased genetic risks in African-Americans?
-Do new studies using brain scans to detect individual perception of racial difference lead to understanding of racism itself as fundamentally a biological rather than a social phenomenon?
-Does information linking biological causation to race take on a particular life in the press?

A distinguished panel of speakers will discuss how the scientific act of establishing a biological cause for traits and the communication of that scientific information to the public might (mis)shape society’s concept of race.

Speakers:
Jonathan Kahn, Hamline School of Law
Race, Law and Neuroscience: Some Explicit Problems with Implicit Bias

Duana Fullwiley, Stanford University
So, My Cancer Came From Africa?” How Ancestry Genetics in Medical Research Shapes Ideas about Causality and Disease Risk

Jay Kaufman, McGill University
The Use of Negative Controls in the Genetic Epidemiology of Racial Disparities

Sally Lehrman, Santa Clara University
Taking up the Cry: When Genetics, Race, and News Print Meet

Aaron Panofsky, University of California, Los Angeles
How “Unscientific” Ideas about Race Contribute to the Scientific Authority of Behavior Genetics