Welcome

The Science and Justice Working Group brings together faculty and graduate students from all five academic divisions on the UC Santa Cruz campus-arts, humanities, social sciences, engineering, and physical and biological sciences-to promote interdisciplinary conversations and exchange. We expand UCSC’s historical focus on social justice to include questions about the formation of science and technology, and related public-policy debates.


Scientific Research on Ayahuasca and Health

Bia Labate

Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 4-6pm

Engineering 2, 599

Beatriz Labate has studied the scientific and social features of psychoactive substances for over 15 years.  In this meeting we will discuss the situation surrounding the compound ayahuasca, a psychedelic used in both medical and spiritual contexts throughout the Americas.  By exploring the frontiers and limits between “therapeutic” and “religious” uses of ayahuasca (and their complicated legal implications) we will better understand the relationship between diverse forms of knowledge production associated with what have been called “sacred technologies.”

Cells, Race and Stories: A Discussion with Priscilla Wald about Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa Cell Line

Priscilla Wald (Duke, English and the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy)

Monday, February 6, 2012

Engineering 2, 599

4:00-6:00 PM

This event is co-sponsored with Cultural Studies, Center for Biomolecular Sciences and Engineering—Research Mentoring Institute, and the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Department.

The Black Panther Party and The Fight Against Medical Discrimination

Alondra Nelson (Colombia, Sociology)

Monday March 12, 2012

College 8, 301

Time: 12:30-2:00PM

This event is co-sponsored with Sociology.

Alondra Nelson will also be hosting a second discussion the following day:

Can Science Have Progressive Goals?
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
4-6:00 PM.
Locataion TBA
Narratives of scientific progress are often paired with narratives about political progress, suggesting that the expansion of scientific knowledge always—or at least generally—leads to the betterment of humankind as a whole. But many socially disadvantaged and oppressed peoples contend that such “progress” is distributed unevenly and often comes at some cost to them. Alondra Nelson will share some of her research on Black politics and genetic genealogy to open a discussion on whether science can have progressive ends, if there can truly be a “science for the people,” and how science and justice can have paired or oppositional goals.

Winter 2012 Events

Our Fall 2011 events are finished. Have a happy holiday season!

Upcoming Winter 2012 events:

January 12

Genomics, Justice and Privacy: A Discussion with Ted Goldstein (Biomolecular Science and Engineering)
Location: Engineering 2, 399
Time: 4:00-6:00

(NB: This is a Thursday event.)

January 26

American Metabolism: A Discussion with Hannah Landecker (UCLA Center for Genetics and Society)
Location: TBA
Time: 4:15-6:15

February 6

A Discussion with Priscilla Wald (Duke, English and the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy)
This event is co-sponsored with Cultural Studies.

March 12

Race, Genomics and Reconciliation: A Conversation with Alondra Nelson (Colombia, Sociology)
This event is co-sponsored with Sociology.