Join us on Tuesday, October 25, at 1 PM ET for the next presentation of the NJ ACTS Special Populations Core 2022 Seminar Series – “What Makes Us Unequal? Understanding Disagreement Regarding Genes and Social Inequality” featuring Professor Sam Trejo, PhD, of Princeton University.

Discussions of social inequality are often polarizing – such conversations only become more controversial when the role of genetic factors is added into the mix. Even people who seem to share a commitment to reducing inequality can fiercely disagree about the relevance of genes and the risks and benefits of social and behavioral genomics research. Here, Dr. Trejo argues that often these disagreements stem from differing answers to the following question: to what extent do genetic differences between individuals produce social inequality? While some people are very broad in the way they translate differences into inequality, others are more focused on hierarchical processes that produce systematic differences between facets of society. Dr. Trejo argues these differing conceptualizations of social inequality can obscure underlying normative disagreements. Through exploring such disagreement, he aims to map out the key tensions and trade-offs in this contentious area of debate.

Dr. Trejo is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and a sociologist interested in how social and biological factors jointly shape human development across the life-course. He specializes in quasi-experimental, computational, and biosocial quantitative methods, and his research typically utilizes large administrative datasets and longitudinal studies containing molecular genetic data.

Event Zoom link: https://go.rutgers.edu/zpniu74r