Center for Biotechnology & Global Health Policy 2017-18 Colloquium Series:
Hate In A Period of Political Turmoil

The Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy prioritizes collaborative, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary exchanges, bringing scholars, policy makers, nongovernmental organization members and others to the University of California, Irvine for roundtables, symposia and points of engagement. This year, we will host conversations that explore the rise in hate speech and hate crimes in the United States.  This academic year marks important milestones for these conversations, starting with the notorious 1927 United States Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell, which officially and legally launched a horrific practice of eugenics in the United States.  Twenty years later, the trial of Nazi doctors who performed atrocities on innocent people, leading to sterilizations, deaths, and the maiming of children, women, and men, began in Nuremberg.  This academic year also marks the 50^th year anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s death and the 55^th anniversary of the tragic bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four girls and injured numerous others.  It was decades before the state brought the perpetrators to justice. Thus, we have so much to talk about—then and now.  This ten-month colloquium series builds from our previous university and community based conversations that have covered topics such as the modern U.S. family, women in politics, race and mental health, same sex families, and sparked lively, important exchange.