October 2016
John D. Lantos – Fifty Shades of Genomics: Assessing the Pain and the Pleasure of Genomic Testing
The talk will begin with a brief discussion of the FDA’s reasoning in their decision to forbid “23&Me” from offering interpretations of genetic results. Dr. Lantos will then examine the hypothetical harms that might arise from genomic information (depression, anxiety, unnecessary medical interventions, harmful medical interventions) and argue that genomics is much more similar to other sorts of medical testing, that many people want the information, even if it is risky, and that we will need to live with some…
Find out more »Aditya Bharadwaj – Local and Global Dimensions of Precision Medicine
This event is part of the Columbia Precision Medicine Initiative’s series, Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics, and Culture. Speaker: Aditya Bharadwaj, The Graduate Institute, Geneva Precision Medicine—an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person—raises a myriad of cultural, political, and historical questions that the humanities are uniquely positioned to address. As part of its overall Precision Medicine Initiative, Columbia is undertaking a broad based exploration of questions that…
Find out more »The Idea of Freedom of Choice in Neuroscience and History
Speakers: Sophia Rosenfeld (Yale), Sheena Iyengaar (Columbia), David Barack (Columbia). Being "free to choose" has arguably become a stand-in for broader concepts of freedom in many parts of the world today. What do Neuroscientists and Historians think of this?
Find out more »Theory of Mind – Seminars in Society and Neuroscience
Speakers Laurie Santos, Rebecca Saxe, and Joshua Knobe will discuss the topic of theory of mind, moderated by Patricia Kitcher.
Find out more »Normative Decisions Between More Than Two Alternatives – Cognition and Decision Seminar Series
Dr. Jan Drugowitsch, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, gives a talk at Columbia University as part of the Cognition and Decision seminar series organized by the Center for Decision Sciences.
Find out more »Containment – Film Screening and Q & A with Peter Galison and Robb Moss
Synopsis: Can we contain some of the deadliest, most long-lasting substances ever produced? Left over from the Cold War are a hundred million gallons of radioactive sludge, covering vast radioactive lands. Governments around the world, desperate to protect future generations, have begun imagining society 10,000 years from now in order to create monuments that will speak across the time. Part observational essay filmed in weapons plants, Fukushima and deep underground—and part graphic novel—Containment weaves between an uneasy present and an…
Find out more »Audra Wolfe – The Fight for Science and Freedom: Recovering the Role of Science in Cold War-Era Cultural Diplomacy
Audra Wolfe uses the story of the Congress for Cultural Freedom’s failed science programming to explore broader U.S. visions of science as a tool for cultural diplomacy—covert, overt, or something in between.
Find out more »Professor Brian Larkin – Generators, Electricity and the Infrastructural Life of Cities
About the speaker: Brian Larkin is the Tow Associate Professor for Distinguished Scholars and an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Barnard College. Professor Larkin sits on the board of the Society for Cultural Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association. He is the author of Signal and Noise: Media Infrastructure and Urban Culture in Nigeria (Duke University Press, 2008) and, with Lila Abu-Lughod and Faye Ginsburg, co-editor of Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain (University of California…
Find out more »Lauren F. Klein – The Shape of History: Reimagining Nineteenth-Century Data Visualization
Data visualization is not a recent innovation. Even in the nineteenth century, economists and educators, as well as artists and illustrators, were fully aware of the inherent subjectivity of visual perception, the culturally-situated position of the viewer, and the power of images in general—and of visualization in particular—to convey arguments and ideas. In this talk, Lauren F. Klein examines the history of data visualization through the lens of two visualization pioneers: William Playfair (1759-1832) and Elizabeth Peabody (1804-1894), showing how…
Find out more »Senator Sheldon Whitehouse – Manufacturing Doubt: The Industry Playbook for Undermining Science and Thwarting Regulation
This year's speaker at the annual Isidore I. Benrubi Lecture is Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, United States Senator from Rhode Island. In the United States Senate, Sheldon Whitehouse has earned a reputation as a fierce advocate for progressive values and a thoughtful legislator capable of reaching across the aisle to achieve bipartisan solutions. The Providence Journal described Sheldon as “a strong-willed and articulate member of the Senate on national issues and an energetic champion of Rhode Island economic and other interests.” Senator Whitehouse…
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