Description

The Genetic Lottery and Its Implications for Social Equality

Recent advances in genotyping technology have led to discovery of specific genetic variants associated with life-course outcomes that are frequently the target of social policy, including educational attainment and criminal justice system involvement. In this talk, professor Harden will briefly review key scientific findings, describe their implications for intervening to narrow social inequalities, and describe anti-eugenic principles that can guide future policy development.

Speaker

Kathryn Paige Harden is a tenured professor in the Department of Psychology at UT, where she leads the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and co-directs the Texas Twin Project. She is the author of The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality, which was published in September by Princeton University Press. Harden received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia and completed her clinical internship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School before moving to Austin in 2009. Her research has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, among others, and she was profiled in the New Yorker. In 2017, she was honored with a prestigious national award from the American Psychological Association for her distinguished scientific contributions to the study of genetics and human individual differences. You can follow her on Twitter at @kph3k.

Practical information

Languages: English
Organisers: Joint Research Centre