Sociology Colloquium Series: Alondra Nelson, Columbia

Alondra Nelson is professor of sociology and gender studies and Dean of Social Science at Columbia University, where she has served as director of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She is Chair-elect of the American Sociological Association Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology. Prior to joining Columbia University, Nelson was on the faculty of Yale University, where she received the Poorvu Award for teaching excellence.

Her most recent book, The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome (Beacon Press, 2016), traces how claims about ancestry are marshaled together with genetic analysis in a range of social ventures. She also takes up these themes in several publications that are among the earliest empirical scholarly investigations of direct-to-consumer genetic testing: “Bio Science: Genetic Ancestry Testing and the Pursuit of African Ancestry” (Social Studies of Science 38, 2008), “The Factness of Diaspora: The Social Sources of Genetic Genealogy” (in Revisiting Race in a Genomics Age, Rutgers University Press, 2008), and “DNA Ethnicity as Black Social Action?”(Cultural Anthropology 28, 2013). The Social Life of DNA will soon be available in Arabic.











When: Fri., Dec. 9, 2016 at 3:00 pm
Where: Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Ave.
212-817-7000
Price: Free
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Alondra Nelson is professor of sociology and gender studies and Dean of Social Science at Columbia University, where she has served as director of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She is Chair-elect of the American Sociological Association Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology. Prior to joining Columbia University, Nelson was on the faculty of Yale University, where she received the Poorvu Award for teaching excellence.

Her most recent book, The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome (Beacon Press, 2016), traces how claims about ancestry are marshaled together with genetic analysis in a range of social ventures. She also takes up these themes in several publications that are among the earliest empirical scholarly investigations of direct-to-consumer genetic testing: “Bio Science: Genetic Ancestry Testing and the Pursuit of African Ancestry” (Social Studies of Science 38, 2008), “The Factness of Diaspora: The Social Sources of Genetic Genealogy” (in Revisiting Race in a Genomics Age, Rutgers University Press, 2008), and “DNA Ethnicity as Black Social Action?”(Cultural Anthropology 28, 2013). The Social Life of DNA will soon be available in Arabic.

Buy tickets/get more info now