September 2016
Science, Technology, and Society Discussion Series – Geopolitical Science and the Logic of Preventive War
In this lecture and roundtable, the Ecole Polytechnique and Columbia University aim to explore issues concerning science and technology in war.
Find out more »Anita Guerrini – Animals and Humans in Louis XIV’s Paris
The New York Academy of Medicine will be hosting a talk "Animals and Humans in Louis XIV’s Paris" with Anita Guerrini on September 13th, 2016. Drawn from her book, The Courtiers’ Anatomists, Anita Guerrini tells the largely overlooked story of seventeenth-century Parisian anatomists who examined both the abandoned human corpses at the Châtelet, and the pampered animals of the king’s menageries. Dissections of both animal and human bodies were spectacles before the King at Versailles and crowds at the King’s Gardens in…
Find out more »Between ‘Deadly Doses’ & ‘Miraculous Cures’: Reassessing Poisons and Antidotes in the Atlantic World
Speakers: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University Benjamin Breen, Columbia University This talk examines the role of poisons and antidotes in slave societies throughout the Atlantic world. It will compare accounts of poisons, curses, and remedies used by Africans and indigenous Americans in regions including Virginia, Angola, and Guiana, questioning how European fears of tropical poisoning shaped colonization and the construction of natural knowledge in the seventeenth and eighteenth century Atlantic basin. The goal is to better integrate the history of poisons…
Find out more »James Tabery: Historical Perspective on Personalized and Precision Medicine
This event is part of the Columbia Precision Medicine Initiative’s series, Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics, and Culture. Speaker: James Tabery, University of Utah 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 »Publishing in Bioethics 101
The Bioethics Program at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies is delighted to offer a special workshop, "Publishing in Bioethics 101" to provide advice, tips and insights to help students. Writing is a key part of being a bioethicist, and many of our students have successfully published their work, greatly advancing their careers. Core faculty from the Columbia University Bioethics program and the Managing Editor of the American Journal of Bioethics will discuss tips and insights into the writing,…
Find out more »Martine Lappé – Postgenomic Parenting: Genetics, Environmental Factors, and Parent Understandings of Autism
This seminar is part of the Seminar on Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Genetics series. Autism spectrum disorder is estimated to affect 1 in 68 children in the United States. In the context of growing information about genetic and environmental risk factors, this seminar focuses on how parents conceptualize the causes of autism and how this information shapes their decisions before, during, and after their child is diagnosed. Dr. Martine Lappé will draw on interviews with parents of children diagnosed with…
Find out more »Ligo Project – Art of Science Kickstarter Happy Hour
Art of Science brings together NYC scientists & artists to collaborate and explore the fusion of two seemingly different disciplines and its impact on art, science, and society. The Art of Science’s final exhibition of the artists’ work provides the NYC community a unique way to learn about science through an artist’s lens. This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP.
Find out more »Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee: Civil Rights Pioneer
An African American obstetrician and civil rights activist from Washington, D.C., Dorothy Ferebee, MD (1898-1980) was descended from lawyers, journalists, politicians, and a judge. At a time when African Americans faced Jim Crow segregation, desperate poverty, and lynch mobs, she advised presidents on civil rights and assisted foreign governments on public health issues. Ferebee was president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha black service sorority and later became the president of the powerful National Council of Negro Women in the nascent civil…
Find out more »Scott Ortman – Discourse and Human Securities in Tewa Origins
Speaker: Scott Ortman, University of Colorado Boulder Abstract: For the Archaeology of Human Experience to have an impact on public policy, archaeologists need to identify what contemporary society values were, determine the extent to which ancient societies provided these values, and examine what it was that enabled certain societies to provide them better than others. I develop a case study of this approach focusing on the famous “collapse” of Mesa Verde society and subsequent formation of ancestral Tewa society in the…
Find out more »Scott Podolsky – The Antibiotic Era: Reform, Resistance and the Pursuit of a Rational Therapeutics
Speaker: Scott Podolsky, MD, Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Director of the Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine Today, as we increasingly turn our attention to antibiotic resistance and the possibility of a “post-antibiotic” era, it is important to consider the historical evolution of forces that promote or impede a “rational” therapeutics. In this talk, Scott Podolsky analyzes the far-reaching history of antibiotics and their use, focusing particularly on seven…
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