Special Events
Save the date! Troy Duster delivers the 2009 Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics on October 7th!
We are very pleased to announce that Troy Duster has been selected to give the 2009 Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics. His talk, "Reflections on the Shifting Political and Cultural Status of Human Molecular Genetics," will be held on Wednesday, October 7, at 4:00 pm in MIT's Bartos Theater (lower level of building E15).
Troy Duster is a Professor of Sociology at New York University. Having received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University and M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, Professor Duster's area of research and interest include, sociology of science; sociology of knowledge; deviance and control; sociology of law; race and ethnicity. His fellowships and honors include, 2002 Hatfield Scholars Award; American Sociological Association's DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award (5/2001); Social scientist to the National Advisory Commission for The Decade of Behavior - 2000-2001; Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science Ethical; Social Issues Panel, Genetic Therapy Germline Intervention.
Abstract
In the short space of four decades, human genetics has catapulted from the “poor relative” of the genetic sciences to a vanguard position in both public consciousness and funding status. Part of this is explained by the revolution in molecular genetics brought about by both the reality and the hyperbole of the mapping and sequencing of the human genome. Part of this is explained by the unrealistic hopes of both producers and consumers for a “genetic fix” to complex human problems – from diseases to behaviors to attributes. From ancestry tracing to crime scene investigation, from direct-to-consumer diagnostics to proposals for long-term gene-environment research, we have witnessed a dramatic shift in both the political and cultural status of human genetics. In the coming decade, we will see a clear fleshing out of these trends – nowhere more clearly than in the idea of race.
