Events for October 29, 2008

October 29, 2008

Giuseppa Testa, European Institute of Oncology

“Indexing Life:  The Scientific and Political Production of Lineages”

Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »

Time:  4:30 p.m.
Location:  402 Claudia Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania

Giuseppe Testa, the Provost’s Distinguished International Scholar, will discuss how genetic knowledge and technology are co-produced by the laboratory and society.  Dr. Testa is an Italian M.D./Ph.D. who runs a cloning/epigenetics laboratory and who also has been trained and does research in science studies. A few years ago he was awarded the Branca Weiss fellowship, which allowed him to pursue an interdisciplinary approach to life sciences and their place in society. In Milan, he started a Ph.D. Program in the Foundations of Life Sciences and their Ethical Consequences. He describes the main focus of his STS research as “how genes and cell lineages become visible, mobile and political elements in the public sphere.”