March 15-17, 2013
Kinship is disputed territory, investigated by anthropology, cultural studies, evolutionary biology, family studies, genetics, law, medicine, psychology, sociology, and women’s and gender studies. Kinship classifications change across cultures and over time. As measures of legitimacy and arbiters of social standing, such categories have significant consequences. In the contemporary world, kinship is in flux as a result of such developments as reproductive technologies, blended families, same-sex marriage rights, and shifting gender roles. Our kin is not limited to humans, however. We belong to a vast evolutionary family tree, the history of which may influence the ways we interact with kin and organize kinship itself. The 2013 MU Life Sciences & Society Symposium, Claiming Kin, will explore the evolution of kin groups and evolving notions of kinship.
Confirmed speakers:
Stephanie Coontz (Evergreen State College; Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families) Historian of the family and author of award-winning Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage (Viking Press, 2005) with articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, LIFE, as well as professional journals.
Martin Daly (McMaster University; University of Missouri) Evolutionary psychologist and anthropologist studying parent-offspring relations, family violence, kinship. Researcher of the Cinderella Effect.
Charis Thompson (UC-Berkeley) Studies science, technology, and gender issues. Author of Making Parents: The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies (MIT Press, 2005) winner of the 2007 Rachel Carson Award from the Society for the Social Study of Science.
Theresa Kelley (University of Wisconsin) Studies literature, Romanticism and history of science. Author of Clandestine Marriages: Botany and Romantic Culture (John Hopkins University Press, 2012).
Charmaine Royal (Duke University) Investigates intersection of genetics/genomics and concepts of “race”, ancestry, ethnicity, and identity. Addresses human health and well-being through the integration of genetic and genomic research with social, behavioral, and humanities research.
David Haig (Harvard University) Evolutionary biologist and geneticist studying parent-offspring conflict using a model of kin selection, as well as intragenomic conflict and genomic imprinting.
Robert Walker (University of Missouri) Anthropologist researching the evolution of human bio-cultural variation including cultural phylogenetics and partible paternity.
Barbara Natterson (UCLA) Cardiologst interested in bringing together veterinary medicine, human medicine, evolutionary and wildlife biology to explore the potential for a species- spanning approach to health.
Bernard Chapais (University of Montreal) Anthropologist and primatologist studying the social behavior of primates as well as human society, kinship systems and family.
Invitations pending
Jane Goodall (Jane Goodall Institute)
MU Life Sciences & Society Program
105 Bond Life Sciences Center
(573)884-6883
http://lssp.missouri.edu/
On occasions like this fascinating symposium, I am THRILLED that anthropology is one of my subject liaison areas. I will have to find a way to clear my calendar and attend as much of it as possible.