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What Is Human? | People

WiH NATIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE

JAY CLAYTON, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor and Chair, Department of English, Vanderbilt University, analyzes the ethical and social issues raised by genetics as they appear in literature and films. He also studies organizational and funding interdisciplinary relationships between the humanities and the sciences. He received an NIH grant through the National Human Genome Research Institute for a three year project on "Genetics in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture. " He has lectured on genetics and literature at the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH, the English Institute, the MLA, the Narrative Society, the Society for Literature and Science, and medical schools around the country. See his recent article in the "Biocultures" special issue of New Literary History: "Victorian Chimeras, or, What Literature Can Contribute to Genetics Policy Today"

DAVID A. EDWARDS, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering at Harvard University, is a biomedical engineer and writer who works at the intersection of art and science. He is the founder of "Le Laboratoire" in Paris, the first "experiment-driven art and science incubator." Edwards, whose research is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is also the founder of Advanced Inhalation Research, or AIR, and of the international not-for-profit Medicine in Need. Listen to an NPR story on David Edwards at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17691836.

LEWIS R. GORDON is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy with affiliations in Religion and Judaic Studies at Temple University, where he also directs the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought and the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies. He has also taught at Brown, Yale, and Purdue, and is Ongoing Visiting Professor Philosophy and Government at the University of the West Indies. He works in areas including Africana philosophy, philosophy of human and life sciences, and theories of race and racism. He has published books on Frantz Fanon, racism, black existentialist philosophers, African American studies, and disciplinary decadence. Gordon has also served as Executive Editor of the journal of the Radical Philosophy Association and as co-editor of the Routledge book series on Africana thought.

MARCO IACOBONI, Director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab and Associate Professor at the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is a leader in mirror neuron research, which the New York Times calls "The discovery that is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy." He is the author of the first general reader book on the significance of mirror neurons: Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect With Others (forthcoming May 2008). Iacoboni's work has been featured on Good Morning America, the Early Show, and Morning Edition, among other TV and radio programs. Check out an article on the mirror neuron research of Iacoboni and his colleagues .

UW-MADISON STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Deborah Jenson
Director, Center for the Humanities; Associate Professor, French

Mark Estante
Program Coordinator, What is Human? Initiative

Hans Adler
Professor, German; Comparative Literature

Thomas Broman
Associate Professor, History of Science

Jill Casid
Associate Professor, Art History

Katrina Forest
Associate Professor, Bacteriology

Susan Friedman
Professor, English and Women's Studies; 
Director, Institute for Research in the Humanities

Joan Fujimura
Professor, Department of Sociology and Holtz Center for Research on Science and Technology

Sage Goellner
Faculty Associate, Continuing Studies

Magdalena Hauner, ex officio
Professor, African Languages and Literature;
Associate Dean, College of Letters and Science

Laura Heisler
Program Developer, Morgridge Institute for Research;
Intellectual Property Manager, WARF

Lara Kain
Associate Director, Center for the Humanities

Richard Keller
Assistant Professor, Medical History and Bioethics; History of Science

Daniel Kleinman
Professor, Rural Sociology; affiliated with Integrated Liberal Studies
Director, Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies

Ullrich Langer
Professor, French

Lewis Leavitt
Professor, Pediatrics; Waisman Center

Anne Lucke
Director of Development, Letters and Sciences, UW Foundation

Jon McKenzie
Associate Professor, English

Tejumola Olaniyan
Professor, African Languages and Literature; English

Bassam Shakhashiri
Professor, Chemistry
William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea
Director, Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy

Elliott Sober
Professor, Philosophy

Edgar Spalding
Professor, Botany; Biomedical Engineering

Jeremi Suri
Professor, History

Clive Svendsen
Professor, Anatomy and Neurology; Waisman Center

Herbert Wang, ex officio
Professor, Geology and Geophysics;
Associate Dean, College of Letters and Science

Claire Wendland
Assistant Professor, Anthropology; Obstetrics & Gynecology; Medical History and Bioethics

 

AFFILIATED FACULTY AND RESEARCHERS

Anne Vila
Craig Werner
Neil Whitehead
Richard Brooks
John Frey
Theresa Kelly
Michael Bernard-Donals
Susan Bernstein