Sponsored by: The Department of History and Sociology of Science, Department of Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science Working Group, and the Penn Museum.

"Bones, Bodies, Bias, and Misbehavior."

Speakers: Claudine Cohen (Professor, History & Philosophy of Science, Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris), Michael Weisberg (Associate Professor of Philosophy), Janet Monge (Associate Curator and Keeper, Physical Anthropology, and moderator Ruth Cowan (Bers Professor, History of Sociology of Science).

This discussion surrounds the use and abuse of biological specimens in the contruction and deconstruction of the race concept. A historic Philadelphia museum collection - the Samuel Morton Cranial Collections (1830-1852) - is center stage in this conversation which will include a discussion of bias and objectivity in the work of Morton and Stephen J. Gould who reanalyzed Morton's original data on brain size and race.