Upcoming Events

April 07, 2025 | BME80G Series: Kyle Robertson on Artificial Intelligence and the Criminal Justice System

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Monday, April 07, 2025

1:20 – 2:25 pm 

J. Baskin Aud 101 (flyer)

On Friday, May 02 at 1:20 pm, you are invited to join S&J affiliate and Associate Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Karen Miga’s BME 80G Bioethics course for a talk by Kyle Robertson.

A zoom option or recording may be available for members of the campus community who cannot attend in person. Contact Colleen Stone (colleen@ucsc.edu) to request access.

Artificial Intelligence and the Criminal Justice System

Predictive algorithms are not just helping us write text (like this abstract), they are becoming part of the criminal justice system. Police departments use them to help with decisions, and courts use them to suggest bail options and amounts. In the future, trials and sentencing may also rely on these technologies. These developments raise important ethical questions about human freedom and causation. In this talk, I will focus on two questions: (1) What moral obligation do we have to use predictive algorithms to prevent crime? (2) How can we reconcile ideas of free will and blameworthiness with the apparent predictability of human behavior?

Kyle Robertson, Lecturer of Philosophy, Assistant Director, Center for Public Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Kyle Robertson is Lecturer of Philosophy, Assistant Director, Center for Public Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Co-hosted by the UCSC Department of Biomolecular Engineering, the Genomics Institute, and the Science & Justice Research Center.

April 10, 2025 | Indians and Energy Transition: Green New Deal to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!’

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Thursday, April 10, 2025

4:00 – 5:30 pm 

Namaste Lounge

Join the Center for Reimagining Leadership and co-sponsors in the Namaste Lounge for a conversation with Andrew Curley (Diné), an Associate Professor in the School of Geography, Development & Environment at the University of Arizona. He is the author of Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation (2023).

Indians and Energy Transition: Green New Deal to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!’

Energy in the United States is a topic of extreme importance. It is foundational to the U.S. economy, infrastructure, development in local communities, and accelerating processes of climate change. In political rhetoric, energy conversations oscillate between broad ideas of clean energy technology to opening more and more protected spaces for oil and gas drilling. Tribal communities are often caught in the middle of these political movements. Native leaders, planners, and workers must anticipate energy headwinds while shoring up their sources of development and revenue while at the same time thinking through the politics of climate change and the negative environmental impacts of energy projects, such as new kinds of contamination, threatening limited water sources or climate change. In this presentation, I will offer new research focused on the perspectives of Diné, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, and Jicarilla Apache community members in places with long histories of fossil fuel production, primarily oil & gas as well as coal and uranium.

Sponsored by: Center for Reimagining Leadership, Environmental Studies Department, Institute for Social Transformation, Kresge College, Rachel Carson College, Science and Justice Research Center

April 10, 2025 | Public Research Action Network: Stand Up for Science; Stand Up for Knowledge

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Thursday, April 10, 2025

4:00 – 7:30 pm 

Coastal Science Building CBB110

Join the newly-created Public Research Action Network!

Building on the momentum from the highly successful Stand up for Science UCSC rallies held in March 2025, faculty are forming a group that will meet regularly with the slogan “Stand Up for Science; Stand Up for Knowledge”. The goal will be to keep up with the changing landscape regarding publicly-based research across all disciplines. The format is collaborative, with a plan for ~30-45 minutes of sharing some current events and updates, and ~45 minutes of action—oriented outreach plans including possibly letter and op-ed writing, working on communications to the UCSC Academic Senate and/or administrators, connecting with state and federal leaders, or other ideas to be crafted together. Meetings will take place once/month on the 2nd Thursday. 

Parking at the Coastal Science Campus is available with no permits after 5pm.

April 11, 2025 | BME80G Series: Christof Koch on Consciousness and its Place in Nature

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Friday, April 11, 2025

1:20 – 2:25 pm 

VIRTUAL (flyer)

On Friday, April 11 at 1:20 pm, you are invited to join S&J affiliate and Associate Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Karen Miga’s BME 80G Bioethics course for a talk by Christof Koch.

A zoom option or recording may be available for members of the campus community who cannot attend in person. Contact Colleen Stone (colleen@ucsc.edu) to request access.

Consciousness and its Place in Nature

Any scientific theory of consciousness, here meant as any experience – feeling-like-something, seeing, smelling, thinking, fearing, dreaming – needs to not only explain the relationship between experience and its substrate, the neural correlate of consciousness, but also why different experiences feel the way they do – why space feels spatially extended, why time flows and why colors feel different from an infected tooth or the taste of Nutella. Most contemporary theories of consciousness are based on computational functionalism. Integrated Information Theory takes a purely operational approach rooted in causal power. IIT argues that the neuronal correlates of consciousness, the maximum of intrinsic cause-effect power, are the posterior hot zone, and that certain types of meditative or psychedelic experiences may go together with a “silent” cortex. I will discuss clinical progress achieved in locating the footprints of such experiences to the posterior part of the cerebral cortex and in reliably detecting the presence of covert consciousness in patients with Disorder of Consciousness.

Christof Koch, PhD, Meritorious Investigator, Allen Institute, Seattle, Chief Scientist, Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, Santa Monica

Christof Koch PhD, is a neuroscientist best known for his studies and writings exploring the basis of consciousness, starting with the molecular biologist Francis Crick. Trained as a physicist, Christof was for 27 years a professor of biology and engineering at the California Institute of Technology. In 2011, he joined the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle as their Chief Scientist, becoming the President in 2015. He is now Meritorious Investigator at the Allen Institute and the Chief Scientist of the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, with its focus on understanding consciousness, and how this knowledge can benefit humanity. His latest book is Then I am myself the world.

Co-hosted by the UCSC Department of Biomolecular Engineering, the Genomics Institute, and the Science & Justice Research Center.

April 16, 2025 | Give It A Shot: an ongoing documentary

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Wednesday, April 16, 2025

4:00-6:00pm

Online Only

UCSC Science & Justice Research Center affiliated faculty are invited on Wednesday, April 16th at 4PM for a private discussion and a wonderful chance to engage with one another’s ideas in these critical and challenging times! At this session, we will engage with filmmaker Vaishali Sinha over her work including an exciting ongoing project. Associate Professor of Sociology Madhavi Murty will provide comments.

Space is limited to six UC Santa Cruz faculty only. To express interest and receive the Zoom link, please fill out this RSVP form or contact Jenny Reardon (reardon1@ucsc.edu) or Colleen Stone (colleen@ucsc.edu).

Vaishali Sinha produced and directed the award-winning feature documentaries, MADE IN INDIA (PBS, Kanopy) and ASK THE SEXPERT (PBS World, Netflix India, Amazon Prime).

April 18, 2025 | BME80G Series: Kim TallBear on From Feminist Science Studies to Native-Led Science for Land and Life

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Friday, April 18, 2025

1:20 – 2:25 pm 

J. Baskin Aud 101 (flyer)

On Friday, April 18 at 1:20 pm, you are invited to join S&J affiliate and Associate Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Karen Miga’s BME 80G Bioethics course for a talk by Kim TallBear, Professor, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society.

A zoom option may be available for members of the campus community who cannot attend in person. Contact Colleen Stone (colleen@ucsc.edu) to request access.

From Feminist Science Studies to Native-Led Science for Land and Life

Indigenous peoples are often at the receiving end of the colonial gaze, including that of scientific researchers whose work has served US and Canadian national development. Kim TallBear is best known for her anthropological study of colonial narratives such as that of the “Vanishing Indian” that animate human population genetics research. Over the past fifteen years, she has worked with scientists and social scientists to channel feminist and Indigenous analyses of science into training Indigenous scientists in critical approaches to genomics. The resulting program, Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics (SING), goes beyond critique to transform science to support Indigenous governance and life. SING Canada, founded in 2018, surpasses diversity and inclusion, and reaches toward decolonization by helping develop critical Indigenous genomics to support Indigenous governance and land back projects. This talk touches on both the disciplinary/theoretical underpinnings and programmatic details of such training.

Kim TallBear, Professor, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society

Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta. She is the author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. Dr. TallBear is a regular panelist on the Media Indigena podcast and a regular media commentator on topics including Indigenous peoples, science, and technology; self-indigenization in the US and Canada; and Indigenous sexualities. You can follow her Substack newsletter, Unsettle: Indigenous affairs, cultural politics & (de)colonization at https://kimtallbear.substack.com.

Co-hosted by the UCSC Department of Biomolecular Engineering, the Genomics Institute, and the Science & Justice Research Center.

April 23, 2025 | TechnoScience Improv

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025

12:15-2:00pm

Humanities 1, Room 210

This roundtable improv brings together ten UCSC scholars working on social, historical, and cultural studies of science, technology and medicine. The event will be structured around eight open, improvised conversations. Rather than structured around formal talks, each conversation will start with a question from a different panelist exploring emerging practices, speculative transformations, and critical imaginings of technoscience, health and ecology.

Convener:

Dimitris Papadopoulos

Participants:

Karen Barad is Distinguished Professor of Feminist Studies, Philosophy, and History of Consciousness.

James Doucet-Battle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Co-Director of the Science & Justice Research Center.

Kat Gutierrez is an Assistant Professor in the History Department.

Dimitris Papadopoulos is Professor of History of Consciousness in the Department of History of Consciousness.

Maria Puig de la Bellacasa is Professor of History of Consciousness in the Department of History of Consciousness.

Jenny Reardon is a Professor of Sociology and the Founding Director of the Science & Justice Research Center.

Warren Sack is Professor of the Software Arts in the Film + Digital Media Department.

Kriti Sharma is an Assistant Professor of Critical Race Science and Technology Studies in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies.

Matt Sparke is Professor of Politics in the Politics Department and Co-Director of Global and Community Health.

Zac Zimmer is an Associate Professor of Literature in the Literature Department.

This talk is part of the earth ecologies x technoscience series in co-sponsorship with the History of Consciousness Department.

April 25, 2025 | Book Celebration: Unmaking Botany

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Friday, April 25, 2025

11:00 am – 1:00 pm, reception to follow 

Location TBD

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions (SEACoast) on Friday, April 25th, in celebration of S&J affiliate Kat Gutierrez’s forthcoming book Unmaking Botany.

Kat Gutierrez is an Assistant Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz and is interested broadly in the politics of botanical life and plant worldmaking in modern histories of the Philippines and Southeast Asia. Kat’s first book, titled Unmaking Botany: Science and Vernacular Knowledge in the Colonial Philippines (Duke University Press, March 2025), expands the “vernacular” in the history of colonial botany and examines practical and epistemological tensions in the Philippines during the science’s internationalist acceleration.

April 25, 2025 | BME80G Series: Jenny Reardon on Contesting Scientific Anti-Racism: Who Decides Its Meaning?

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Friday, April 25, 2025

1:20 – 2:25 pm 

J. Baskin Aud 101

On Friday, April 18 at 1:20 pm, you are invited to join S&J affiliate and Associate Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Karen Miga’s BME 80G Bioethics course for a talk, Contesting Scientific Anti-Racism: Who Decides Its Meaning?, by Jenny Reardon.

A zoom option or recording may be available for members of the campus community who cannot attend in person. Contact Colleen Stone (colleen@ucsc.edu) to request access.

Contesting Scientific Anti-Racism: Who Decides Its Meaning?

Description is forthcoming.

Jenny Reardon, Professor of Sociology, Founding Director, Science and Justice Research Center, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Jenny Reardon is 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). She has been the recipient of fellowships and awards from, among others, the National Science Foundation, the Max Planck Institute, the Humboldt Foundation, the London School of Economics, the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, and the United States Congressional Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Recently, she started a project to bike over one thousand miles through her home state of Kansas to learn from farmers, ranchers and other denizens of the high plains about how best to know and care for the prairie.

Co-hosted by the UCSC Department of Biomolecular Engineering, the Genomics Institute, and the Science & Justice Research Center.

Readings

Small, Zachary. 2025 “Taking Aim at Smithsonian, Trump Wades Into Race and Biology.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/arts/design/trump-smithsonian-race.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Miriam, Frankel.  2015. “Rocks and racism? How geologists created and perpetuated a narrative of prejudice” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/16/rocks-and-racism-how-geologists-created-and-perpetuated-a-narrative-of-prejudice

May 02, 2025 | BME80G Series: Mohammed Mostajo-Radji on Consciousness and Neuroethics: Exploring the Boundaries of Personhood and Research

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Friday, May 02, 2025

1:20 – 2:25 pm 

J. Baskin Aud 101 (flyer)

On Friday, May 02 at 1:20 pm, you are invited to join S&J affiliate and Associate Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Karen Miga’s BME 80G Bioethics course for a talk by Dr. Mohammed Mostajo-Radji.

A zoom option or recording may be available for members of the campus community who cannot attend in person. Contact Colleen Stone (colleen@ucsc.edu) to request access.

Consciousness and Neuroethics: Exploring the Boundaries of Personhood and Research

Ethics Consciousness remains one of the most profound and debated topics in neuroscience, philosophy, and bioethics. This presentation explores diverse perspectives on consciousness, from philosophical frameworks like dualism and monism to cutting-edge neuroscientific approaches using human brain organoids. As organoid research advances, ethical questions surrounding personhood, animal welfare, and the moral status of artificially grown neural structures become increasingly urgent. By examining case studies of human brain organoids, chimeric models, and neural restoration techniques, we will discuss the ethical challenges of defining consciousness and its implications for medical research, end-of-life care, and the future of neuroscience.

Dr. Mohammed Mostajo-Radji, Assistant Research Scientist, UCSC Genomics Institute.

Dr. Mohammed Mostajo-Radji is an Assistant Research Scientist at the UCSC Genomics Institute, where his is part of the Braingeneers group, a multidisciplinary collective of geneticists, neuroscientists, and engineers focused on the human brain specification and function. His research explores neuronal specification and fate plasticity in the cerebral cortex using brain organoid models. Additionally, he leads the Live Cell Biotechnology Discovery Lab, which develops cloud-based experimental science education technologies. Dr. Mostajo-Radji earned his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard University and completed postdoctoral training at University of California San Francisco Department of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research.

Co-hosted by the UCSC Department of Biomolecular Engineering, the Genomics Institute, and the Science & Justice Research Center.