[Sci-tech-public] Call for Papers: What's the Use of Race

[Debbie Meinbresse]

>We would appreciate your assistance in distributing this call for 
>papers to your colleagues.  We apologize for any cross postings you 
>might receive.
>
>
>>Call for Papers: What's the Use of Race?
>>
>>Conference: April 25-26, 2008
>>Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and Medicine
>>Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
>>
>>Submission Deadline: October 15th, 2007
>>
>>Despite long-standing critiques of the concept of race from
>>biologists, anthropologists, and social scientists, race continues to
>>thrive as a category of analysis among scholars, pundits, and the
>>conventional wisdom.  State and federal institutions routinely
>>collect data about race and ethnicity.  The National Institutes of
>>Health requests that researchers include racially and ethnically
>>diverse populations in their studies.  Journals in fields as diverse
>>as genetics, public health, and sociology report data on race and
>>ethnicity and use these variables as significant factors in their
>>analyses.  This pursuit of race has produced overwhelming
>>documentation of racial disparities, from birth rates to education,
>>income, crime, punishment, disease, medical treatment, and life
>>expectancy.  While many scholars believe that research must consider
>>race if it is to understand fully human biology and experience,
>>critics argue that race is a hollow and misleading concept that leads
>>to invidious distinctions.  While advocates of social justice argue
>>that racial disparities must be documented before they can be
>>alleviated, our vast knowledge of disparities has not yet led to
>>decisive social or political action against them.
>>
>>What should be done?  Should the concept of race be invoked to
>>further the goals of science or social justice?  Do racial and ethnic
>>distinctions produce natural categories for scholarly or political
>>analysis?  Do the benefits of including diverse populations in
>>research outweigh the potential harm caused by reifying racial and
>>ethnic distinctions?  Will efforts to improve the precision of these
>>categories with subtler distinctions based on ancestry or genetic
>>markers increase the utility of the resulting data?  What role do
>>funding agencies (whether governmental or philanthropic) and journal
>>editors have as gatekeepers for the appropriate use of racial and
>>ethnic categories?  What hopes and conflicts are embedded in analyses
>>of race as a scientific, medical or social category?  This conference
>>invites papers from any discipline -- medicine, history,
>>anthropology, epidemiology, STS, genetics, sociology, law, ethics,
>>and others -- that consider these debates about the uses of race.  We
>>hope to describe and explore the competing interests that have made
>>studies of race simultaneously feared and desired.
>>
>>Abstracts (300 words or less) should be submitted by October 15th to:
>>
>>David S. Jones, M.D., Ph.D.
>>77 Massachusetts Avenue E51-290
>>Cambridge, MA  02139
>>dsjones at mit.edu (email submissions preferred)
>>
>>Additional information at web.mit.edu/csd
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