Event
The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome
There has been a surge of interest in genealogy. Encouraged by technological advances—like direct-to-consumer DNA testing kits and the appearance of online genealogical websites that simplified uncovering one’s past—millions of people started tracing their roots, making it the second most popular hobby in the US. In this presentation, Nelson will detail her more than ten years of research into the ways that African American communities are engaging with these new scientific insights, exploring the personal, cultural, and political impact that genetic data is having on issues of race in America.
In addition to recreational and personal uses of genealogy mapping in families, she explores lesser-known but momentous uses of genetic ancestry testing, including legal and political uses that aid in establishing ties with African ancestral homelands, transforming citizenship, recasting history, and making the case for reparations. From individual “root seekers” and “DNA diaspora” groups collaborating to reconfigure and reconnect to their pasts, to contemporary activists and lawyers working on social justice campaigns, Nelson will describe genealogical information's surprising trajectory.
Alondra Nelson is Dean of Social Science and professor of sociology and gender studies at Columbia University. An interdisciplinary social scientist, she writes about the intersections of science, technology, medicine, and inequality. She is the author of The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome, and of Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination. Chair-elect of the Science, Knowledge and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association, she is also coeditor of Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History and Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life. In 2002, she edited “Afrofuturism,” an influential special issue of Social Text.
The recipient of Mellon, Woodrow Wilson, and Ford fellowships, Professor Nelson has been a visiting fellow of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and the BIOS Center at the London School of Economics. She is a member of the NSF-sponsored Council on Big Data, Ethics, and Society, sits on the editorial board of Social Studies of Science, Social Text, andPublic Culture, and serves on the board of advisors of the Data & Society Research Institute. Her essays, reviews, and commentary have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Science, Boston Globe, and on National Public Radio, among other venues.
For more information visit: alondranelson.com