Events

Calls to identify, explore, and address ethical and social issues as part of the design and implementation of many forms of scientific research are now widespread. From the authorizing legislation for the newly established Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) to the newly formed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), research funding agencies today seek to integrate ethical and social analysis.  Yet, little work exists that assesses and evaluates models of integration.  This talk explores why this work of reflection is vital in this moment, and describes preliminary results from one effort to conduct it, the Leadership in the Ethical and Equitable Design of science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (LEED of STEMM).

Jenny Reardon is a Professor of Sociology and the Founding Director of the Science and Justice Research Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Her research draws into focus questions about identity, justice and democracy that are often silently embedded in scientific ideas and practices, particularly in modern genomic research. Her training spans molecular biology, the history of biology, science studies, feminist and critical race studies, and the sociology of science, technology and medicine. She is the author of Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics (Princeton University Press, 2005) and The Postgenomic Condition: Ethics, Justice, Knowledge After the Genome (Chicago University Press, Fall 2017).