Fall 2017: “Examining Neuroscience, Genetics and Inequality”

Course Description

The 2017 Fall Global Inequality Research Institute (GIRI) Seminar Examining Neuroscience, Genetics and Inequality explored controversial and important issues related to race, genetics and inequality, how they are studied, and whether (and how) such studies should inform medical practice, criminal and other legal actions, personal identity claims, health disparities, and social policy. Should we phase out the use of racial terminology in biological sciences? If so, will the conventional terminology be replaced by new language that preserves the same ideas? And are those ideas actually incorrect? If we deem illegitimate genetic explanations for differences in group-based behaviors and outcomes, is there still a space for genetic explanations for differences in individual behaviors and outcomes? The course convened Wednesdays 11:45 pm – 2:15 pm in Keohane 4D 201 SEM.

• Race in a Bottle: The Story of BiDil and Racialized Medicine in a Post-Genomic Age – Jonathan Kahn (2014)
• Medicating Race – Anne Pollock? (2012)

GIRI Capstone Conference: “Examining Neuroscience, Genetics and Inequality”
Erwin Mill Building – Duke University
Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Leading scholars and students enrolled in the Global Inequality Research Initiative (GIRI) seminar gathered to explore important issues related to race, genetics and inequality, how they are studied, and whether (and how) such studies should inform medical practice, criminal and other legal actions, personal identity claims, health disparities, and social policy.  The “Examining Neuroscience, Genetics and Inequality” capstone conference featured a keynote address by Dr. Joseph L. Graves Jr., an expert panel including Dr. Brenda Reddix-Smalls and Dr. Misha Angrist, and student presentations. The Global Inequality Research Initiative is an interdisciplinary, vertically integrated research initiative that emphasizes a judicious application of mixed methods from the social sciences, both quantitative and qualitative, and the treatment of representation and identity from the humanities. Simultaneously GIRI serves as a clearinghouse for the best available data and research on group-based inequality. View conference photos here.