2017 Black New England Conference
The Science and Engineering of Race: Living Through the Archives

The Carsey School is a proud co-sponsor of the 2017 Black New England Conference. This conference will discuss how modern medical and social sciences have made some extraordinary advances through the exploitation of Black bodies while simultaneously allowing myths of racial inferiority to continue as justification for centuries of enslavement and political disenfranchisement.

From the Tuskegee syphilis experiment to the unethical use of Henrietta Lacks’ cells to engineer a polio vaccine, to the ongoing forced sterilization of Black women in clinics and prisons, the story of American scientific advancement carries with it a shadow story of ethical corruption, pain, and silencing. The insidious parallel fictions of the innate athleticism, super strength and natural rhythm of African people are rooted in pseudo-scientific research and writings.

In unpacking this theme, conference presenters will examine the historical and current impact of “race science” and pseudoscientific movements to present “race as destiny” on fields of inquiry ranging on areas of modern medicine and health care, reproductive rights, public policy, criminal law, civil rights, athletics, educational access, and effects on the arts and entertainment industries.

Conference Panels Include:

• Hidden Figures: Reintroducing Regional Black Scientists & Innovators
• In the Name of Science: A Film Discussion
• Out of The Shadows: A Conversation with Shelly Walcott & Katherine Sanders
• Tracing Genetic Ancestry & Reclaiming Black Spaces
• Inventing Race: Science, Medicine & Big Business
• Skeletons in Our Closet: Anthropology’s Role in Constructing and Deconstructing the Science of Race
• Afrofuturism: The Way Forward

View the Conference Schedule Here. 

The Black New England Conference, now in its 11th year, is a regularly occurring 2-day gathering to share insights and scholarly work on Black experiences, past and present, in New England. Recent keynote speakers at the conferences have included comedian and activist Dick Gregory, columnist Derrick Jackson, actor and activist Sheryl Lee Ralph, director John W. Franklin, playwright Lydia Diamond, author Lorene Carey, and Professors James Campbell and James O. Horton, with topical presentations by professional and independent scholars, community researchers, writers, artists, and activists. The Conference is both an academic conference and a celebration of Black life and history.