The Promises of Social Science Genetics. Lecture, 6 March 2023
Fundación BBVA at Palacio del Marqués de Salamanca. Paseo de Recoletos, 10. Madrid
March 6, 2023
19.00 – 20.30 CEST
The recent boom of sociogenomics research – the integration of large scale molecular genetic information into social science research – has been driven by at least four promises: First, to control for genetic confounding in population-based data. Second, to investigate genetic heterogeneity in social explanations. Third, to use genes as instrumental variables to identify social effects causally. Fourth, genetic prediction of social and health outcomes might provide important insides for early social interventions.
In this talk, the speaker will shortly introduce the technical background of the molecular genetic data revolution before exemplifying current challenges and a potential prospective regarding the original promises for this field in the social sciences.
Dr. Felix Tropf
is a sociologist and his current interests focus on social demography, genetics and big data econometrics. He is an Assistant Professor in Social Science Genetics at CREST/ENSAE, an Associate member of Nuffield College in Oxford and a Visiting Scientist at the Queensland Institute for Medical Research (QIMR) in Australia. In 2016, he received the European Demography Award for best PhD Thesis. In 2022, he was Awarded the prestigious Horizon Europe ERC Starting Grant. Tropf’ research has been published, amongst others, in Demography, Nature Genetics, Nature Human Behaviour, JAMA Psychiatry, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Population Studies. Together with Melinda Mills and Nicola Barban, he co-authored a textbook about statistical genetic data analysis published with MIT press.