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The Colour of Our Skins

Event: Public event
Date: 17 Jul 2007 00:00


Speaker(s): Professor Wilmot James, University of Cape Town

Organised by: The ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Venue: Menzies & Hancock Rooms, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 28 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DS

Abstract:

Professor James will examine the biology of skin colour and explore what it tells about the peopling of the globe over the last 150,000 years or so. He will also speculate about why skin colour is such a mark of the 'other', the enemy, the stranger, by looking at the interaction between the biology of vision and social unity in hunting and gathering societies. He sets his discussion in a South African (where he lives) context where apartheid has left ‘a legacy [of] perverted understanding of the idea of race and the significance of skin colour.’

Biographical details:

Professor Wilmot James is Executive Director of the Africa Genome Education Institute; Honorary Professor in the Division of Genetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town.

Further details: Read - The colour of our skins report.

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