Alondra Nelson (Columbia University)
Dr. Nelson is an Associate Professor of Sociology and holds an appointment in Columbia's Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Her research examines the production of knowledge about human difference in biomedicine and technoscience and the circulation of these ideas in the public sphere. She is the author of several publications, including the forthcoming books, Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination (University of Minnesota Press, 2011) and Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision Betwee DNA, Race and History (co-editor, Rutgers University Press, 2011). Her 2008 article, “Bio Science: Genetic Ancestry Testing and the Pursuit of African Ancestry,” Social Studies of Science 38: 759-783, will be one of three readings assigned in anticipation of the events (see below).
Publications
- "Bio Science: Genetic Ancestry Testing and the Pursuit of African Ancestry," Social Studies of Science 38 (October 2008): 759-783.
- "The Factness of Diaspora," in Barbara Koenig, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, and Sarah Richardson (eds.) Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Address: Columbia University, Deparment of Sociology, 606 West 122nd Street, New York, NY 10027, USA
fax: +1 212 851 7081
email: alondra.nelson@columbia.edu
