The shifting landscape in biosocial science

Professor Dorothy E. Roberts of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a leading scholar on legal and biosocial theory, will present this year’s Tanner Lectures at Harvard on Wednesday and Thursday. Her two-part talk will examine a profound shift in biosocial science, and its effects on theories of race and social inequality.

Founded in 1978, the Tanner Lectures focus on human values. “Those values of course change historically and even geographically in different phases,” said Homi K. Bhabha, director of the Mahindra Humanities Center. “We bring to our campus speakers who, from their different disciplinary perspectives, have something to say about the transformation in cultural and ethical values around a particular topic. Roberts brings together a wide range of expertise, and also a range of perspectives that makes her work transdisciplinary. And it speaks to many parts of the campus on issues that are relevant at this point.”

Reached before her Harvard visit, Roberts, J.D. ’80, explained the focus of her talk. “What I’ll be doing is looking at the ethics of biosocial science — which as I define...