Mossman Lecture | Professor Alondra Nelson
The Mossman Endowment of McGill University presents the Elizabeth B. McNab Lecture in the History of Science.
This year's lecture entitled "Even a Moon Shot Needs a Flight Plan: Genetics and Ethics in the Obama Administration" will be given by Professor Alondra Nelson.
Seating will be on a first come, first served basis.
Alondra Nelson is president of the Social Science Research Council. She is also professor of sociology at Columbia University, where she served as the inaugural Dean of Social Science and director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Nelson began her academic career on the faculty of Yale University and there was recognized with several honors, including the Poorvu Prize for interdisciplinary teaching excellence.
An award-winning sociologist, Nelson has published widely acclaimed books and articles exploring the junction of science, technology, medicine, and social inequality. Her recent publications include a special issue of the British Journal of Sociology on history, genealogy, and the "GU 272." She is currently at work on a book about science policy in the Obama administration.
Nelson is author of The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome, which was named a finalist for the 2017 Hurston-Wright Foundation Legacy Award for Best Nonfiction and a Wall Street Journal favorite book of 2016. The Social Life of DNA is now available in an Arabic translation. Her books also include Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination, which was recognized with five awards, including the Mirra Komarovsky Award and the C. Wright Mills Award (Finalist), as well as Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History (with Keith Wailoo and Catherine Lee) and Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life (with Thuy Linh Tu). In 2002, Nelson edited “Afrofuturism,” an influential special issue of Social Text, drawing together contributions from scholars and artists who were members of a synonymous online community she established in 1998.
