School of Social and Political Science

Description

Prof Jenny Reardon, UC Santa Cruz (Photo by Karolina Knittel)

Abstract

In 1948, as the United Nations (UN) sought to build support for its Universal Declaration of Universal Human Rights, it asked the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization (UNESCO) to disseminate “scientific facts” that countered racism. The resulting UNESCO Expert Statements on Race became paradigmatic reference points for the celebrated anti-racist claim that race has no basis in biology.  Drawing on new archival materials and trans-disciplinary reading strategies, The Birth of Scientific Anti-Racisms re-situates the UNESCO Statements in a pivotal moment when the Cold War and anti-colonial movements challenged UNESCO’s efforts to ground peace in universalizing statements about the oneness of humanity, and led UNESCO to propagate the very racist claims its Statements sought to oppose.  It considers the dilemmas the resulting racist scientific anti-racisms present today as once again many seek to mobilize ‘science’ as an anti-racist, anti-authoritarian force.

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 (University of Chicago Press, Fall 2017).  
 

Location: G.01 HSY Teaching Centre

High School Yards

Edinburgh, EH1 1LZ

And online - STIS Seminar Zoom Link:

https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/82140544359?pwd=Eoxde3Vj_00WiBRxOt47aCdJ0Dy3CITi.T-3gLpgTSI0MkJAy
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