Race & Racism in the Sciences Speaker Series: What’s Real About Race? Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society

Rina Bliss, Rutgers University, Sociology Department
Friday, April 12 
4:00 – 5:30 with a reception to follow.
In-person and Zoom attendance

 

In recent years, genetic and social researchers have ramped up research and development around the undeniably real effects of race. Yet, the new technologies that we are creating are perpetuating old systems of harm, in particular old systems of racism, in new ways. From genome science, we know that race may not be genetically “real,” yet we experience it as a mundane fact of life, something spinning in the background, constantly shaping us in unseen ways. From social science, we know that race is also deeply politicized—it conditions our ability to access rights and resources—and yet we don’t get to choose our race because how others see us is something physiological that we cannot control. This talk will draw on genetics and sociology to answer the enduring question: If race is a social construct, then what’s real about race?
 
About the Speaker
Dr. Rina Bliss’s work explores the personal and societal significance of emerging genetic sciences. She is Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and the author of Rethinking Intelligence: A Radical New Understanding of Our Human Potential, Race Decoded: The Genomic Fight for Social Justice, and Social by Nature: The Promise and Peril of Sociogenomics. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with her family.