University of Washington
2022 Anthropology Distinguished Lecture Series

Dr. Oliver Rollins, American Ethnic Studies, University of Washington

Title: “Of the Meaning of (Scientific) Progress: How Science Continues to Get Race Wrong”

Abstract: Sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois famously wrote that “Progress is necessarily ugly.” Du Bois understood that whatever change was, or was to be, it would require an extraordinary effort, struggle, to upend the systematic production and normative rationalization of racism in society. Extending Du Bois’s critical foresight to the world of Science, we can ask: How has Science changed (progressed) over time regarding the question of race, and importantly, how far does it still need to go to get race “right”? In this talk, I will explore how recent attention to (systemic) racism in the biomedical and technoscientific fields has led to new strategies and recommendations to deal with the twinned force of racism, race. While taking seriously the progression of science on question of race, I also raise questions regarding if and how the proposed infrastructural and experimental modifications can account for a more capacious consideration of the “effects of race” and amply challenge the entrenched consequences of racism in and outside the lab. I close with both a query and instruction to help move towards an anti-racist science (technoscience) that will be truly beneficial for all in society.

Dr. Rollins is a qualitative sociologist who works on issues of race/racism in and through science and technology, exploring how racial identity, racialized discourses, and systemic practices of social difference influence, engage with, and are affected by, the making and use of neuroscientific technologies and knowledges. Currently, he is working on a project that examines the neuroscience of implicit bias, chiefly the challenges, consequences, and promises of operationalizing racial prejudice and identity as neurobiological processes.

About This Series: This colloquium is organized by the Department of Anthropology to explore key perspectives on the future of Anthropological thought and praxis across the subfields of Anthropology and beyond. Speakers have been invited to address any of several key themes within the field including: the history of anthropology, scientific racism, collaborative and ethical approaches to research inquiry, and multi-modal research. We look forward to learning how our speakers connect the history and epistemology of the discipline to their methodological and theoretical engagements. We hope for this series to stimulate additional discussion within our department and beyond on how anthropologists can better attend to the workings of race, power, and difference within and across our subfields.