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Dr. Richard D. Clark, chair of earth sciences and professor of meteorology, was a guest speaker at the Central Pennsylvania Engineers Week Council’s National Engineers Week Banquet 2020. The event was held on Thursday, February 20, 2020. Clark’s presentation was on the topic, “The Potential of Automated Vehicles for Road Weather Information.”
Dr. Justin García, associate professor of anthropology, delivered an invited talk at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center on February 13, 2020. García’s presentation, titled “The Flawed Concept of Race: Biology or Social Construct,” was part of Penn State Health’s Day of Understanding celebration organized by its Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. During his hour-long presentation, García discussed issues such as genetic diversity and diversity of geographic ancestries within groups that are commonly perceived as “races.” He also discussed the specific racial categories that are used in the United States and the manner in which these racial categories are officially defined by the federal government under OMB Directive 15 in 1977.
He concluded the presentation by discussing how the often overlooked issue of genetic diversity within these socially-defined racial groups often leads to common misunderstandings about race with respect to genetically inherited diseases – such as when people assume that sickle cell is exclusively a “black disease” or that cystic fibrosis is exclusively a “white disease.”
Garcia explained during his talk that genetically inherited diseases that are disproportionately (but not exclusively) found among members of certain socially-defined racial or ethnic groups compared to others are the result of a complex set of specific geographic ancestries and genetic histories – for example, cystic fibrosis is not a “white” disease but rather a disease that is most prevalent, but by no means exclusive, among populations of northern European geographic ancestry, such as from Scandinavia and the British Isles. Likewise, sickle cell anemia is not an exclusively “black” disease but rather occurs in much higher frequencies among certain populations of Western and Central African, Mediterranean European, Arabian and central India ancestries. The overarching theme of García’s talk was that human physical and genetic diversity is far more complex and nuanced than racial categories often reflect or account for.
Dr. Kazi Hossain, early middle, & exceptional education, presented a pedagogical strategy titled “Immigration Beyond the Border Wall!” at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) 99th annual conference. The conference took place in Austin, Texas from November 22-24, 2019. His presentation focused on how to overcome students’ misconceptions about immigration and its process in the United States by comparing past and the present.
Benjamin Kling, ID Technical Operations Manager in Information Systems Services, will be presenting at a local conference called “TechTalk Live” May 5. https://techtalklive.org/speakers/.
