Events

Past Event

CPRC SEMINAR: The Genetic Lottery: How The Science of Human Individual Differences Can Be Used for Social Equality

April 20, 2021
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
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Event Organizer

Columbia Population Research Center
Email:[email protected]
Website: https://cprc.columbia.edu/

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | ONLINE (VIA ZOOM) | REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Hosted by
Columbia Population Research Center (CPRC)

Featuring
KATHYRN HARDEN, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
University of Texas at Austin

About the Event
Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified genetic variants that are correlated with socially-valued life course outcomes, such as educational attainment and criminal justice system involvement. Critics, however, warn that genetic research on human social and behavioral outcomes risks entrenching racist and classist dimensions of social inequality. At this CPRC seminar, Kathryn Harden (bio), a clinical psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin and the leader of its Developmental Behavior Genetics Lab, will review recent GWASs of education and externalizing psychopathology, and describe various processes that contribute to observed associations between polygenic scores and human behavioral outcomes. She will then turn to looking at how genetically-associated inequalities can be viewed through the lens of what she calls “luck egalitarianism”: how can genetic research be used to advance equity goals? More details HERE.