Rina Bliss - What’s Real About Race? Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society
Rina Bliss (Rutgers - New Brunswick)

February 20, 2026, 3:30pm - 5:00pm
The Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh

1008, 10th Floor of Cathedral of Learning
University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh 15260
United States

This will be an accessible event, including organized related activities

This event is available both online and in-person

Organisers:

University of Pittsburgh

Details

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our 66th Annual Lecture Series Talk. Attend in person in room 1008 in the Cathedral of Learning (10th Floor)  or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

The Annual Lecture Series, the Center’s oldest program, was established in 1960, the year when Adolf Grünbaum founded the Center. Each year the series consists of six to eight lectures, about three quarters of which are given by philosophers, historians, and scientists from other universities.

Annual Leture Series – Rina Bliss

Friday, February 20th @ 3:30 pm - 5:30pm EDT

1008 Cathedral of Learning 

Title: What’s Real About Race? Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society

Abstract: 

Biologically, race is a fiction—but it is a fiction that has real social consequences. In What’s Real About Race? sociologist Rina Bliss unpacks how genetic and social research have perpetuated racial categories and stereotypes. How, Bliss asks, did categories of race emerge and get embedded in modern-day science? How did scientists begin misusing DNA collections and genetic research stratified by race? Are there ethical ways to consider race in scientific research? And the elephant in the room: what, if anything, is real about race? Bliss offers a new conceptual framework: race is not a genetic reality, but it is also not merely a social construct; it is a social reality with a stark impact on our life chances and health.

Can’t make it in-person? This talk will available online through the following:

 Zoom:  https://pitt.zoom.us/j/94981603060 and 

YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

A reception with light refreshments will follow in The Center on the 11th floor from 5-6pm.

Speaker Information:

Dr. Rina Bliss’s work explores the personal and societal significance of emerging genetic sciences. She is Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and the author of What’s Real About Race? Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society, Rethinking Intelligence: A Radical New Understanding of Our Human PotentialSocial by Nature: The Promise and Peril of Sociogenomics, and Race Decoded: The Genomic Fight for Social Justice. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with her family.

Rina Bliss (Rutgers University)

https://linktr.ee/drrinabliss

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