Colloquium Series

The colloquium on Biological Futures met regularly throughout the two years of the project and featured guest speakers, panel discussions, and readings-based seminars. Its focus in 2012-2013 was issues central to the Research Ethics Project: what constitutes ethically responsible conduct of research in rapidly evolving fields where the potential benefits and threats include long-term, often global social and ecological impacts. Detailed descriptions and audio podcasts are available for most events. In 2013-2014, a new program on Biological Securities is taking shape, organized by Celia Lowe and Luke Bergmann; for news and updates on this initiative, click here.

Select a colloquim quarter:


Colloquium Schedule

Biosecurities 2013-2014
The initiative will consist of one public salon and one concept studio on each of the three terms—biosecurity in the fall quarter, reterritorialization in the winter, and para-human populations in the spring. For more information, visit here.

  • Biosecurity Concept Studio, November 14th, 3:30-5:30.
  • Rob Wallace, January 14th, 1:30-3:20, Simpson Center Conference Room.
  • Simon Dalby talk, March 7th 3:30-5:00.
  • Michael Hathaway, March 14th, 3:30-5:00, Denny 401.
  • Elizabeth Johnson, April 25th, 3:30-5:20.

 

Spring Quarter 2013
Background reading for the Spring Quarter colloquium series can be found on the following GoPost:  https://catalyst.uw.edu/gopost/board/aw26/32579/

Monday, April 29: What Counts as Consent?
12:00 - 1:30 pm, Communications 202
Lunch will be served -- please RSVP to suzelong@uw.edu by Thursday, April 25.

Discussion of consent as the issue arises in the context of managing tissue banks, in engineering and energy extraction, and in personalized medicine.
  • Panelists: Malia Fullerton (Bioethics and Humanities, UW School of Medicine); Gwen Ottinger (Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell); and Christopher Wade (Nursing and Health Studies, UW Bothell)
  • See event flyer (.pdf) for more details
  • Listen to a podcast (mp3) of the event

Monday, May 6: New Belmont: Knowledge, Power, and the Ethics of Biological Security
12:00 - 1:30 pm, Communications 202
Lunch will be served -- please RSVP to suzelong@uw.edu by Thursday, May 2

Gaymon Bennett and Roger Brent (Center for Biological Futures, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) will discuss the implications of a rapidly changing biosecurity landscape in which a growing number of individuals and small groups have the capability to make new replicating organisms. They revisit the monumental 1979 'Belmont Report' on human subjects research and ask what new strategies are needed to understand and address the challenges poased by state-of-the-art biological research.

Monday, May 20: Stewardship…of what, by whom, in whose interests?
12:00 - 1:30 pm, Communications 202
Lunch will be served -- please RSVP to suzelong@uw.edu by Thursday, May 16.

Discussion of stewardship as the issue arises in environmental ethics, biomedical research, and archaeology.
  • Panelists: Steve Gardiner and Lauren Hartzell-Nichols (Philosophy, Program on Values and Program on the Environment); Wylie Burke and Kelly Edwards (Bioethics and Humanities, School of Medicine); Alison Wylie (Philosophy and Archaeology/Anthropology)
  • See event flyer (.pdf) for more details
  • Listen to a podcast (mp3) of the event

 


Winter Quarter 2013

Friday, February 8: Flu Forum: The Ethics and Politics of Influenza Research in a Global Context
2:30 - 4:00 pm, Communications 202

In September 2011 flu research hit the headlines once again, but not because virus-trackers had identified the threat of a new pandemic. In this case what mobilized anxieties and galvanized debate was the announcement that researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam had successfully engineered a mutant H5N1 virus that was transmissible between mammals. This generated intense debate about the ethics and politics of biomedical research that raises a number of deeply perplexing/perennial problems: Is there research scientists should not undertake? How should such research with dangerous organisms be regulated, and what responsibilities do scientists have to assess and to communicate its risks? Another broader set of questions comes into sharp focus if experimental virus research is set in the context of the historical geographies in which flu viruses evolve. We juxtapose, in this Flu Forum, close consideration of the ethics and politics of H5N1 research with discussion of the global dynamics, crucially, the global political and economic inequalities, that play a key role in creating the potential for devastating pandemics, and that determine how we respond to these threats.
  • Panelists: Rob Wallace (Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota); Celia Lowe (Anthropology, UW); Jesse Bloom (Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center); Gaymon Bennett (Center for Biological Futures, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)
  • Moderator: Matt Sparke (Geography, UW)
  • See event flyer (.pdf) for more details.
  • See PowerPoint slides (.pdf) for Wallace and Bloom

Monday, February 11: Are we researching our way into a deadly pandemic?
Noon - 1:30 pm, Communications 202

  • Guest Speaker: Rob Wallace (Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota)
  • Lunch will be served: please RSVP by Thursday, Feb. 7 to suzelong@uw.edu
  • See event flyer (.pdf) for more details.
  • See PowerPoint slides (.pdf)

Friday, February 15: Flu Forum II: The H5N1 Research Moratorium Suspended
9:30 - 11:20 am, Denny 211

A conversation with Roger Brent (Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) about the decision to resume transmissibility research and the DHHS Framework for regulating research with highly pathogenic viruses, and about the scientific and governmental contexts for these developments.
  • See event flyer (.pdf) for more details.

Thursday, March 7: Ethics from the Bottom-Up: Recursive depth in technosocial networks
4:00 - 5:30 pm, Communications 202

  • Guest Speaker: Ron Eglash (Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
  • See event flyer (.pdf) for more details.

 


Fall Quarter 2012

Mondays, 10:30 - 11:20 am in Mary Gates 271

Biological Futures in a Globalized World is sponsoring "Research Ethics Exposed!" (GenSt 391), a course in which UW Faculty will be giving presentations on ethics issues that are of active concern in cutting edge fields of research in the social and natural sciences. These presentations are all open to the community. See the series flyer (pdf).

  • September 24:  Laura Harkewicz, Biological Futures and the Program on Values
    Conflicted Interests: Scientific Uncertainty and Public (Dis)Trust with a Historical Perspective
  • October 1: Celia Lowe, Anthropology and International Studies
    Recognizing Scholarly Subjects: Ethical Issues in Transnational Collaboration >
  • October 8: Tom Ackerman, Atmospheric Sciences; Lauren Hartzell Nichols, Program on Values and Program on the Environment
    • Ethics Issues in Geo-engineering
  • October 15: Sara Goering, Philosophy and the Program on Values
    Thinking About Neuroethics: Ethics Engagement in the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering
  • October 22: Gaymon Bennett, Center for Biological Futures, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
    The H5N1 Controversy
  • October 29: Woody Sullivan, Department of Astronomy
    Ethical Issues Raised in Astrobiology Concerning the Possibility of Finding Extraterrestrial Life
  • November 5: Karen Moe, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Medical School), and the Director of the Human Subjects Division (Office of Research)
    Human Subjects and the IRB Process
  • November 19: Malia Fullerton, Bioethics and Humanities
    From Bench to Bioethics: Grappling With the Implications of Human Genetic Research
  • November 26: Gwen Ottinger, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, UW-Bothell
    Understanding Emerging Technology: Obligations for Proactive Knowledge Production

 


Spring Quarter 2012

April 9 (4pm, Simpson Center): A Case for Pluralism in Science

  • Visiting Speaker: Hasok Chang (History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge). Co-hosted with the UW Department of Philosophy Spring Colloquium.
  • For more information, see the event flyer (pdf)
  • Listen to a podcast (mp3) of the event


April 23 (4pm, Simpson Center): Intellectual Property and Molecular Biology: Biomedicine, Commerce, and the CCR5 Gene Patent

  • Visiting Speaker: Myles Jackson (History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, NYU). Co-hosted by The Kammeyer Fund for the History of Science and Technology.
  • For more information, see the event flyer (pdf)
  • Listen to a podcast (mp3) of the event
  • See the PowerPoint slides (pdf)


May 7 (4:30pm, Savery 408): The Ethics of Scientific Writing: How to Write and How Not to Write a Paper


May 21 (4pm, Simpson Center): Neural Engineering: the intellectual and physical interface between technology and life

 


Winter Quarter 2012

January 23 (12:30pm, Simpson Center): On Internalization: Ethics Maxims for the Biological Sciences

Convened by Gaymon Bennet (CBF Fellow, Hutchinson Center) and Meg Stalcup (CBF Fellow, Hutchinson Center)


February 13 (4pm, Simpson Center): Anticipatory Governance of Emerging Technologies


February 14 (5:00 - 6:30 pm, Rose Room, UW-Bothell): Innovation Squared: Why innovations in technology require innovations in ethics

A panel convened by Gwen Ottinger (Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, UW-Bothell)


February 27 (4pm, Simpson Center): A Genealogical Pragmatist Approach to Problems of Biopolitics and Infopolitics

 


Fall Quarter 2011

October 10 (Simpson Center): Emerging Issues in Biological Futures

  • Panelists: Matt Sparke (Geography, UW), Leah Ceccarelli (Communication, UW), Gaymon Bennett (CBF Fellow, Hutchinson Center)
  • Moderator: Alison Wylie (Philosophy and Anthropology, UW; Biological Futures PI)
  • For more information, see the event flyer (pdf)
  • Listen to a podcast (mp3) of the event


November 7 (Simpson Center):  Emerging Issues in Biological Futures II: A Panel Discussion on Global Health

  • Panelists: Celia Lowe (Anthropology, UW), Meg Stalcup (CBF Fellow, Hutchinson Center), Luke Bergmann (Geography, UW)
  • Moderator: Matt Sparke (Geography, UW)
  • For more information, see the event flyer (pdf)
  • Listen to a podcast (mp3) of the event


November 30 (4pm, Simpson Center): Biological Threats and Biological Futures

  • Presentations by Roger Brent (Center for Biological Futures, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) and Alison Wylie (Philosophy and Anthropology, UW)
  • Informal discussion with Forum on Science Ethics and Policy (FOSEP)
  • See the PowerPoint slides (pdf)
  • Listen to a podcast (mp3) of the event