#8 – Latifa Jackson - Reflections on charting your scientific path

GES Center Lectures, NC State University

Genes & Society: Decolonizing Human Genetic Research Workshop Series

The Genomic Fire Next Time: Reflections on charting your scientific path

Dr. Latifa Jackson, Assistant Professor, College of Medicine, Howard University

Website | Twitter @latifajackson Multi-omic data has been used to create narratives about who we are as humans—are they correct or do they tell a very one-sided story? Hosted in collaboration with BAA (Being an Ally in Academics).

Related reading:

• First Person: Latifa Jackson, _American Scientist _

As an assistant professor of pediatrics at Howard University, Latifa Jackson is concerned with public health, but also with evolutionary biology and the genetic signatures of selection that can affect disease outcomes. Jackson is part of an initiative at Howard’s William Montague Cobb Research Laboratory called the 1,000 African-American Genomes Project, which aims to compare samples from different populations of current and ancestral Africans to determine differing allele frequencies.

Genes & Society Workshop Series

While the events over the last several years in the United States have placed an important focus on issues of race, diversity, and systemic inequalities; these issues are long-standing and embedded within institutions, academic disciplines, and the broader scientific community. In response to the most recent examples of these inequalities, NC State has stated that “Diversity is critical to NC State’s mission” and that “New perspectives deepen our understanding, strengthen our community and propel our innovation.” Building upon NC State’s mission statement and past successful race and science events, NC State’s Being an Ally in Academics (BAA) group has collaborated with Genetics and Genomics Academy, the Genetics and Engineering in Society Center (GES), and TriCEM to organize a new two-day workshop series titled, “Genes and Society: Decolonizing Human Genetic Research”. The goal of this series is to explore the current and historical intersections of racism, systemic inequalities, and human genetic research with an emphasis on inviting diverse and historically underrepresented groups as seminar speakers.

Genetic Engineering and Society Center

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