Public Engagement and Gene Editing
An Interview with Sheila Jasanoff
For our first Genaerrative podcast, we spoke with Sheila Jasanoff, the Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Program on STS. Prior to joining the Kennedy School, she was the founding chair of the STS Department at Cornell University and has held distinguished visiting appointments in the US, Europe, and Japan.
Jasanoff has authored more than 120 articles and chapters and is author or editor of more than 15 books. Her work explores the role of science and technology in the law, politics, and policy of modern democracies, with particular attention to the nature of public reason. Jasanoff’s most recent book, The Ethics of Invention (2016), discusses ethical and political problems that arise from nascent technologies.
Jasanoff served on the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and as President of the Society for Social Studies of Science. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Sarton Chair of the University of Ghent, and an Ehrenkreuz from the Government of Austria. She holds AB, JD, and PhD degrees from Harvard, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Twente.
Genaerrative spoke to Jasanoff to better understand why human gene editing is in the spotlight, why current models of public engagement on this issue are insufficient, and how we can improve.
Jasanoff and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on STS will host a conference on April 26–28 called Editorial Aspirations: Human Integrity at the Frontiers of Biology. Parts of the conference are open to the public or to registration before April 21.
