2023 Biology & Society Summer School

Daily Schedule

All times are in UTC.

08 August 2023

Chair:            Alan Love, University of Minnesota (US).

15.00 -15.15

Gould, Levins, Lewontin—The Context: Stuart Newman, New York Medical College (US); Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas at Austin (US).

15.15 -15.45 Biology and Human Behavior I:

John P. Jackson, Jr., Michigan State University (US). “Psychology as the last bastion of scientific racism.”

15.50 -16.35 Biodiversity, Ecology, and Society I:

Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas at Austin (US). “Where the philosophy of ecology and conservation biology should be going.”

16.40 -17.25 Race, Ethnicity, and Biology I:

Phila Msimang, Stellenbosch University (South Africa). “A short history of the modern relationship of race and ethnicity to biology in society.”

17.25 -18.00 Break.

Chair:            Victoria Shmidt, University of Graz (Austria).

18.00 -18.45 Biotechnology and Society I:

Stuart Newman, New York Medical College (US). “A brief history of corporate capture of the biosphere.”

18.50 -19.35 Public Health I:

Felipe Cabello, New York Medical College (US). “What is public health?”

19.40 -20.00 Contributed Paper.

Supriya Bajpai, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (India). “On the ontological status of viruses.”

20.00 -20.20 Contributed Paper.

Christelle Montjean, University Paris 1—Pantheon Sorbonne (France). “Virus classification—means and purposes.”

20.20 -20.40 Contributed Paper.

Ragnar van der Merwe, University of Johannesburg (South Africa). “How Darwin can help post-structuralists maintain that apartheid was unconditionally unjust.”

20.45 -21.00 Discussion.

09 August 2023

Chair:            Kseniya Brailovskaya, Independent researcher, St. Petersburg (Russia).

15.00 -15.45 Public Health II:

Merrill Singer, University of Connecticut (US). “Current and future infectious disease syndemics: The biosocial foundations of health in a changing world.”

15.50 -16.35 Biodiversity, Ecology, and Society II: 

Yrj¨o Haila, Tampere University (Finland). “Erosion of biological space: The main driver of biodiversity loss.”

16.40 -17.25 Race, Ethnicity, and Biology II:

Lisa Gannett, Saint Mary’s University (US). “Yes, race and ethnicity are socially constructed. That shouldn’t worry geneticists.”

17.25 -18.00 Break.

Chair:            Stuart Newman, New York Medical College (US). 

18.00 -18.20 Contributed Paper.

Olesya Bondarenko, University of Cambridge (UK). “E is for equality: polygenic score × macrosocial environment research in sociogenomics.”

18.20 -18.40 Contributed Paper.

Michal Hub´alek, University of Hradec Kr´alov´e (Czech Republic). “A brief (hi)story of just-so stories in evolutionary science.”

18.50 -19.35  Biology and Human Behavior II: 

Callie Burt, Georgia State University (US). “Scrutinizing polygenic scores for social science.”

19.40 -20.00 Contributed Paper.

Zvi Hasnes-Beninson, Tel-Aviv University (Israel). “Epistemic commitments have no ‘off’ button.”

20.00 -20.20 Contributed Paper.

Maksim Miroshnichenko, American University of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan). “Is this a human being? Combining phenomenology and reflexivity in bioethical observation.”

20.20 -20.40 Contributed Paper.

Brandon Ryan Long, Bowling Green State University (US). “Moral enhancement and behavioral trait variance.”

20.45 -21.00 Discussion.

10 August 2023

Chair:            Victoria Shmidt, University of Graz (Austria).

15.00 -15.45 Biology and Human Behavior III:

Göhan Akbay, Cyprus International University (Turkey). “Genes as causes: GWAS and complex traits.”

15.50 -16.35 Biodiversity, Ecology, and Society III:

Kartik Shanker, Indian Institute of Science (India). “Colonisation by conservation: The philosophy and practice of ecology and its impact on the global South.”

16.40 -17.25 Race, Ethnicity, and Biology III:

Michael L. Blakey, William & Mary University (US). “The blinding light of race in science and society.”

17.25 -18.00 Break.

Chair:            Anya Plutynski, Washington University St. Louis (US).

18.00 -18.45 Biotechnology and Society II:

Aaron Panofsky, University of California at Los Angeles (US). “Confronting misappropriation: A case study in racist counterscience.”

18.50 -19.35 Public Health III:

Michael Boylan, Marymount University (US). “The extended shared community worldview imperative: becoming a citizen of the world.”

19.40 -20.40 Race, Ethnicity, and Biology IV:

Scott Williams, Case Western Reserve University (US). “Race, ethnicity, ancestry and disease risk.”

20.45 -21.00 Discussion.

11 August 2023

Chair:            Kseniya Brailovskaya, Independent researcher, St. Petersburg (Russia).

15.00 -15.45 Biotechnology and Society III:

Eugene Koonin, National Center for Biotechnology Information (US). “CRISPR systems: from fundamental philosophical problems to fascinating biology to genome editing.”

15.50 -16.35 Biodiversity, Ecology, and Society IV:

Mariana Benítez, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (México). “Agroecology in the interface: practicing science along with social movements.”

16.40 -17.25 Race, Ethnicity, and Biology V:

Victoria Shmidt and Christian Promitzer, University of Graz (Austria). “Biologization of the Slavs as part of the global history of race.”

17.25 -18.00 Break.

Chair:            David Suárez Pascal, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (México).

18.00 -18.45 Biotechnology and Society IV:

Stuart Newman, New York Medical College (US). “Scientific and social contraindications of human genetic engineering.”

18.50 -19.35 Public Health IV:

Felipe Cabello, New York Medical College (US). “Epidemics in history and in culture: some examples.”

19.40 -20.00 Contributed Paper.

Maria Antonia Delli Gatti, University of Naples (Italy). “Why do we have to deal with astrobiology?”

20.00 -20.40  Biology and Human Behavior IV: 

Kulyash Zhumadilova, Virginia Tech (US). “Dialectical challenge to ontological reductionism of molecular biology.”

20.45 -21.00 Discussion.

12 August 2023

Chair:            Kulyash Zhumadilova, Virginia Tech (US).

15.00 -15.45 Biology and Human Behavior V:

Kevin A. Bird, University of California (US); and John P. Jackson, Jr., Michigan State University (US); and Andrew S. Winston, University of Guelph (Canada). “Confronting scientific racism in psychology: Lessons from evolutionary biology and genetics.”

15.50 -16.35 Biodiversity, Ecology, and Society V:

Charbel El-Hani, Universidade Federal da Bahia (Brazil). “Building a theoretical framework for intercultural dialogue between knowledge systems.”

16.40 -17.25 Race, Ethnicity, and Biology VI:

Phila Msimang, Stellenbosch University (South Africa). “African is not a race.”

17.25 -18.00 Break.

Chair:            Phila Msimang, Stellenbosh University (South Africa).

18.00 -18.45 Biotechnology and Society V:

Alina Chan, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (US). “The scientific and non-scientific challenges of investigating the origin of Covid-19.”

18.50 -19.35 Public Health V:

Jacopo Nicola Bergamo, Universidad de Vigo (Spain). “Pandemic capitalism: ontological debate and the ecology of Covid-19.”

19.40 -20.00 Contributed Paper.

Reshma Joy, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar. “Thinking on the biology of self in life.”

20.00 -20.20 Contributed Paper.

David Suárez Pascal, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (México). “On the role of information in biological (genetical) explanations.”

20.20 -21.00 General Discussion and Conclusions.