Past Events

Hannah Landecker (UCLA Center for Genetics and Society) Thursday January 26, 2012, 3:00-5:00 PM Engineering 2, Room 399 Epigenetics has turned food and its metabolism into a problem that is not just about how the body turns food its basic components–carbohydrates, fat, protein-but how food acts as a signal of the environment–both biological and political.… Continue Reading Eating Information? Food and Metabolism in Epigenetic Perspective

Bia Labate Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 4-6pm Engineering 2, 599 Beatriz Labate has studied the scientific and social features of psychoactive substances for over 15 years. In this meeting we will discuss the situation surrounding the compound ayahuasca, a psychedelic used in both medical and spiritual contexts throughout the Americas. By exploring the frontiers and… Continue Reading Scientific Research on Ayahuasca and Health

Priscilla Wald (Duke, English and the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy) Monday, February 6, 2012 Engineering 2, 599 4:00-6:00 PM This event is co-sponsored with Cultural Studies, Center for Biomolecular Sciences and Engineering—Research Mentoring Institute, and the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Department.

Another World is Plantable! Part 4 Documentary on Community Gardening and Food Justice in North America 2010 Thursday 10/27, 4:30-6:30 PM, Studio C (Room 150 in Communications Building) Director: Ella von der Haide In a series of four documentaries, Ella von der Haide features urban community gardens and their connections to emancipatory social movements in… Continue Reading Another World is Plantable! Film Screening with director Ella von der Haide

Andro Hsu with discussion by Ted Goldstein and Whitney Boesel November 9, 2011 Engineering 2, Room 599 4:15-6:15 PM Andro Hsu (VP of Products at GigaGen and former science writer and policy advisor at 23andMe) will join us for a discussion of what we are learning—both about policy/society and biology—as increasing resources are put into… Continue Reading Information, but Meaning? The Value of Genomics

Modelling pigs and humans: Exploring the practices of models across sciences Wednesday October 19, 2011 Engineering 2, Room 499 PhD Fellow Vibeke Pihl, Medical Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen. Vibeke Pihl’s research addresses how connections between humans and animals are shaped in contemporary biomedical research on human… Continue Reading Vibeke Pihl: Modeling pigs and humans

Comparative Tinkering: A Roundtable Tuesday, October 25th, 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. UCSC Campus, Social Sciences 1, Room 261 (Anthropology’s Colloquium Series room) Speakers: Karen Barad (UCSC, Feminist Studies), Alan Christy (UCSC, History), Lawrence Cohen (UC-Berkeley, Anthropology), Andrew Matthews (UCSC, Anthropology), Danilyn Rutherford (UCSC, Anthropology), Warren Sack (UCSC, Film & Digital Media), Anna Tsing (UCSC,… Continue Reading Comparative Tinkerings: A Roundtable

Wednesday, October 5, at our normal time and place (Eng 2 599. 4:15-6:15). John Kadvany will join us to discuss the concept of risk. Oxford University Press recently published John’s book on risk, entitled Risk: A Very Short Introduction. Given that so many of us in the group are interested in thinking well about risk–whether… Continue Reading John Kadvany: A Very Brief Introduction to Risk

Tracking Ghosts: Hauntings from a eugenic past Banu Subramaniam (UMass Amherst) May 11, 2011, 4:30-6:30 Engineering 2, 599 What do morning glory flowers or exotic plant and animal species have to do with the history of race or eugenics? In this talk, I trace the genealogies of ecology and evolutionary biology to explore how histories… Continue Reading Banu Subramaniam – Tracking Ghosts: Hauntings from a Eugenic Past

Wednesday, March 9, 4:15-6:15 pm 599 Engineering 2 Michael Mateas runs the Expressive Intelligence Studio at UC Santa Cruz, which explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, art, and design. Their goal is to create compelling new forms of interactive art and entertainment that provide more deeply autonomous, generative, and dynamic responses to interaction. A major… Continue Reading Michael Mateas: Gaming and the Sociological Imagination