#AcademicRunPlaylist - 1/13/24

These geese had no fear venturing onto the Charles, and while I wasn't foolhardy enough to join them I did enjoy watching them from the shore while listening to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting discussion with Ziv Granov on disgruntled corporate director resignations on the Business Scholarship Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErDi6OBs07Q

Next was an amazing talk by Paul Cisek on understanding brain mechanisms through evolutionary history at the Kempner Institute at Harvard University. This is a wild tour, starting with the earliest appearance of neurons and their tight coupling to behavior, the development of eyes, the spinal column, and finally the brain. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnT7jaQX4X8

Next was an incredible panel on DEI and the first amendment at the American Constitution Society with Shalini Agarwal, Tona Boyd, Taonga Leslie, Chris Geidner, and William Carter. Carter's section alone is worth the price of admission, where he methodically works through US and constitutional history to demonstrate why attacks against DEI and other initiatives don't stand legal (not to mention ethical) scrutiny. Highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkQ-G9Qh8_E

Next was an excellent talk by Paul Cisek on the neural mechanisms of real-time decisions at the Allen Institute. This really gives a good explanation of much of what's going on under the hood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r3xnrD4rZ4

Next was "The Story of Work" by Jan Lucassen, who reviews the history of labor relations through the history of humanity, starting with early humanity and moving to the modern era. This book is much more about labor relations rather than the experience or organization of work itself. The second half hews very strongly towards Western exceptionalism, and there are some significant factual distortions and inaccuracies when it comes to indigenous populations as well as modern economic systems. That being said, if you want a labor-focused history of the world, this is a decent volume https://bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/review/6247845/s/a-straightforward-play-by-play-of-labor-relations-history#anchor-6247845

Last was "Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology" by Deirdre Cooper Owens, who combines first hand accounts and medical papers from the Antebellum period to demonstrate the tight linkage between slavery, economic interests, and science. With the wealth of slaveholders tied to the ability of them to force Black women to reproduce, this created an environment for gynecological research completely divorced from any ethical considerations. Importantly, as the field developed there were standard ethical statements that the American Medical Association put out that slaves should have to consent to any treatments, but this was not followed up by any sanctions or serious consideration in the field. There are a lot of shocking and awful practices examined in this book which makes it a tough read, but it is essential for those who want to understand the inextricable link between science, business, and ethics. Highly recommend https://ugapress.org/book/9780820354750/medical-bondage/