Charmaine DM Royal on Shifting Paradigms on Genetics and Race

Shifting Paradigms on Genetics and Race
A journey through an unanticipated career exploring and shaping perspectives, practices and policies to advance science and human flourishing

Free and open to all members of the Duke community and the public.

Join us for the return of the Trinity College Distinguished Lecture, awarded this year to Charmaine DM Royal, Robert O. Keohane, Professor of African & African American Studies, Biology, Global Health, and Family Medicine & Community Health at Duke. Dr. Royal's research, scholarship, and teaching focus on ethical, social, scientific, and clinical implications of human genetics and genomics, with an emphasis on issues at the intersection of genetics and race. Her interests and primary areas of work include genetics and genomics in African and African Diaspora populations; sickle cell disease and trait; public and professional perspectives and practices regarding race, ethnicity, and ancestry; genetic ancestry inference; and genotype-environment interplay.

A fundamental aim of her work is to dismantle ideologies and systems of racial hierarchy in science, healthcare, and society. She directs the Duke Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference and the Duke Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation.