Discrimination and the Sciences @ Wadham College

What is the social responsibility of the sciences? In recent times, ethical conflicts surrounding race, gender, and the natural sciences have surfaced again. A recent editorial in Nature defending memorials to J. Marion Sims, who experimented on enslaved black women, and Thomas Parran, who oversaw the Tuskegee syphilis study, led to widespread criticism. How should STEM scholars incorporate questions of social justice and ethical responsibility into their research and teaching?

Join us for a pre-dinner conversation on these issues. Cedric Tan, a biologist and college lecturer at Wadham, will present on „Shying or crying: a personal experience on communicating sensitive issues in biology (same-sex behaviour, trophy hunting and illegal logging)” and Juliane Borchert, DPhil candidate in physics will explore the controversy surrounding indigenous rights and the construction of the Thirty Metre Telescope on Mauna Kea.