[Sci-tech-public] Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics: Ruth Schwartz Cowan, speaker

[Debbie Meinbresse]

2008 Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics  -  November 17, 2008

Climbing Up the Slippery Slope:  The History of Genetic Screening

Ruth Schwartz Cowan

4:00 pm, MIT, Bartos Theater (

<http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?mapterms=E15&mapsearch=go>E15-070

, lower level)


Abstract:
Is genetic screening a new form of eugenics?  This history of the 
technologies of screening does bioethics with historian's tools--and 
answers that question with a resounding "no."

Bio:
Ruth Schwartz Cowan is the Janice and Julian Bers Professor of the 
History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. 
Professor Cowan is an historian of science, technology and medicine. 
Her areas of specialization include history of technology, history of 
genetics, genetics and social policy, history of reproduction, 
history of medical technology, gender and science, medicine, and 
technology. She was a member of the History Department of the State 
University of New York at Stony Brook from 1967 to 2002, attaining 
the rank of Professor in 1984 and Emerita Professor in 2002. Between 
1997 and 2002, she was the Chair of the Honors College at SUNY-Stony 
Brook; she also served as Director of Women's Studies from 1985-1990. 
Professor Cowan received her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University, 
her M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and her B.A. 
from Barnard College.

Professor Cowan is the author of four books and numerous articles. 
Her books are: The Social History of American Technology (New York: 
Oxford University Press, 1997); (with Neil M. Cowan) Our Parents' 
Lives: The Americanization of Eastern European Jews (New York: Basic 
Books, 1989) [revised second edition published as Our Parent's Lives: 
Everyday Life and Jewish Assimilation (New Brunswick: Rutgers 
University Press, 1996)]; Sir Francis Galton and the Study of 
Heredity in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Garland Press, 1985); 
and More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from 
the Open Hearth to the Microwave (New York: Basic Books, 1983). Her 
most recent book 
<http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COWHER.html>Heredity and Hope: 
the Case for Genetic Screening was published by Harvard University 
Press in May, 2008.

Please join us on November 17th for Ruth Schwartz Cowan's Arthur 
Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics. For more information, please 
contact Debbie Meinbresse at meinbres at mit.edu or 617-452-2390.


Debbie Meinbresse
STS Program, MIT
617-452-2390
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