Alondra
Nelson's research interests are in the areas of the sociology of health,
illness and the body; the sociology of science, technology and knowledge; social
movements and collective action; social stratification (intersections of race,
class, and gender); and social and cultural theory. Her research areas include
the social, cultural and bioethical implications of genetic science; African
American social movements and health activism; race, gender and technology;
"race" and racialization in biomedicine and technoculture; futurism
and speculative theory; and new media and digital culture. She is the co-editor
(with Thuy Linh N. Tu) of Technicolor: Race, Technology and Everyday Life (NYU
Press 2001). She is presently expanding a recently edited special issue of Social
Text on technologies and black culture, which will be published by Duke University
Press as Afrofuturism: Speculative Imagery, Futurist Themes and Technological
Innovation in the African Diaspora. Nelson is also at work on a manuscript about
late-twentieth African American health advocacy around issues of genetic disease,
medicalized models of social unrest, and reproductive rights, as well as a related
project on the transformations of individual and group identity attendant to
the introduction of commercial genetic technologies for use in tracing human
genealogies.
(Description and picture taken from Dr. Nelson's website.)
Public Lecture
The Pursuit of African Roots in the Age of Genomics
Thursday, March 31st, 6-7:45 pm, Devlin 101
Seminar
Futurism and Speculative Theory in African American Culture
Friday April 1st
Assigned Seminar Readings:
- "Motion Capture" (PDF, 2.9 MB)
- "Freedom Dreams" (PDF, 12.3 MB)
- "Against Race" (PDF, 12.5 MB)
- "Future Texts" (PDF, 77 KB)