"What Does DNA Tell Us About Race?" / LJWorld.com

with Troy Duster, New York University

Details

Categories: Lectures
Event posted: Feb. 5, 2008
Last updated: Feb. 19, 2009

Event details

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Dole Institute of Politics, KU campus, Lawrence
Cost: Free
Age limit: All ages

The Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas will mark Black History Month with two programs featuring leading African-American scholars.Randal Jelks will present the 2008 Langston Hughes Lecture, "Rediscovering the Life of a Black Religious Intellectual: Benjamin Elijah Mays in the Making of the American Civil Rights Movement." The program will begin at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, at the institute and is co-sponsored by the Langston Hughes Committee and the American Studies Program.Medical sociologist Troy Duster will present "What Does DNA Tell Us About Race?" Duster's program will examine the biological and social realities of race in America. The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21. A book signing will follow."Both Dr. Jelks' and Dr. Duster's research help us better understand the vital intersection of race and politics. We're fortunate to have them both at the Dole Institute," said Jonathan Earle, interim director of the institute.Jelks is the Langston Hughes Visiting Professor of American Studies at KU. He is a professor of history and director of the African and African Diaspora Studies Program at Calvin College. His research focuses on African-American religious, urban and civil rights history. He is the author of "African Americans in the Furniture City: The Politics and Respectability and the Civil Rights Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan."Duster is a professor of sociology and director of the Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge at New York University. He has been chair of the advisory Committee on Ethical, Legal and Social Issues for the Human Genome Project and was past-president of the American Sociological Association in 2004-05. Duster is the author of "Backdoor to Eugenics" and "Whitewashing Race: the Myth of a Color-Blind Society." Duster, the grandson of famed civil rights and anti-lynching advocate Ida B. Wells, grew up in a family dedicated to hard work and equal rights.A book signing will follow Duster's lecture.