<html>
<body>
Apologies if you have already received this notice from another
source.<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 11:49:56
-0500<br>
To: events-hs@fas.harvard.edu, all-hs@fas.harvard.edu<br>
From: Liza Zwiebach <lzwiebac@fas.harvard.edu><br>
Subject: [events-hs] Fwd: Workshop on "How complexities of the
social<br>
environment<br>
shape the ways that society makes use of knowledge about
'genetic'<br>
conditions"<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><br>
Dear colleagues,<br><br>
Some spaces have opened up in this workshop if you are interested or can
think of people I could invite -- suggestions welcome.<br><br>
Yours,<br>
Peter Taylor<br>
Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Values<br>
Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston<br>
--------<br><br>
<font size=6><b>"How complexities of the social environment shape
the ways that society makes use of knowledge about 'genetic'
conditions"<br>
</font><font size=4><br>
Spring 2005 New England Workshop on Science and Social Change, an
innovative, interaction-intensive workshop designed to facilitate
discussion and longer-term collaboration among college faculty who teach
and write about interactions between scientific developments and social
change. <br>
See</b></font>
<a href="http://www.stv.umb.edu/newssc05.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.stv.umb.edu/newssc05.html</a><font size=4><b>
for background on NewSSC premises and objectives.<br><br>
Location: Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole MA, USA<br>
April 21, 9am - April 24, 3pm</b></font><br>
Organizer: Peter J. Taylor, University of Massachusetts Boston, Programs in Science, Technology and Values.<br>
See <a href="http://www.stv.umb.edu/newsscarrange.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.stv.umb.edu/newsscarrange.html</a> for Costs and Arrangements<br>
<br>
<font size=4><b>Preamble to the workshop topic:<br>
</b></font>Even in a case where a condition has a clear-cut link to a single changed gene [see below], the socially conditioned pathways of change in behavioral or medical conditions over individuals' lifetimes-their biosocial development-have to be taken into account to know the various things different people can do. Bringing more attention to such implications of genomics and related developments in genetics is an important area for history, philosophy, sociology, and politics of biology. Such discussion might well be informed by historical cases, especially in agriculture where 'genetic' knowledge has a long history.<br><br>
Consider the case of phenylketonuria (PKU). Many teachers about biology in its social context invoke the case of PKU to demonstrate that "genetic" does not mean unchangeable. Until the 1960s people with the PKU gene always suffered severe mental retardation. But now the brain damage can be averted through detection of newborns with high levels of the amino acid phenylalanine followed by a special phenylalanine-free diet. Yet, as Diane Paul's (1997) history of PKU screening shows, the certainty of severe retardation has been replaced by a chronic disease with a new set of problems. Although screening of newborns became routine quite rapidly, there remains an ongoing struggle to secure health insurance coverage for the special diet and to enlist family and peers to support PKU individuals staying on that diet. For women who do not maintain the diet well and become pregnant, high levels of phenylalanine adversely affect the development of their non-PKU fetuses. A more complex picture of development in a social environment is needed for anyone to make use of the knowledge that the fate of individuals with the PKU gene is not determined at birth. Moreover, if scholars in Science & Technology Studies and others want to contribute to improving the lives of people affected by PKU, we need to consider where we are prepared to get involved-around insurance policy, ethnic diversity in diet, support groups for PKU individuals, measures to promote dietary compliance in teenagers and fertile women, services for babies affected by their PKU mothers, and so on.</blockquote><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
events-hs mailing list<br>
events-hs@lists.fas.harvard.edu<br>
<a href="http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/events-hs" eudora="autourl">http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/events-hs</a></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Debbie Meinbresse<br>
STS Program, MIT<br>
617-253-4062</body>
</html>