Race, Biological Causation and Scientific Communication
-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
African American Studies Oct 10 2014 | 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM Newkirk Alumni Center, 450 Alumni Court.