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Faculty Coordinatator, David Palumbo-Lu of Comparative Literature

2004-2005 Workshops

Revisiting Race & Ethnicity in the Context of Emerging Genetic Research

Web site: http://shrn.stanford.edu/workshops/revisitingrace/

Faculty Coordinator(s):

Graduate Student Coordinator(s):


Description

This inter-disciplinary workshop will focus on the "genetic turn" in scholarship on human genetic variation and its implications for the study of "race" and ethnicity. Thus far scholars in the humanities and social scientists have given little attention to the rapid growth in the development of "high-throughput" technologies for genetic analysis, a technical change that has led to achievements such as the completion of the human genome sequence. Human genetic variation research-focused on differences across human populations-has emerged as a major trajectory in the scientific study of health and disease. Consideration of the implications of this emerging research for our understanding of the category of "race" has been minimal. Scholars have expressed a sense of urgency in addressing the potential social consequences of such research. As a forum for inter-disciplinary dialogue, this workshop will offer a unique opportunity of bringing together faculty and graduate students concerned with the nature of human difference.