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Debra Harry will explore the tenuous relationship between indigenous communities and the gene hunters over the decade, and discuss whether and how genetic research can be carried out with integrity.

Ms. Harry is Northern Paiute, from Pyramid Lake, Nevada. She serves as the Executive Director of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism. The Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism is organized to assist indigenous peoples in the protection of their genetic resources, indigenous knowledge, and cultural and human rights from the negative effects of biotechnology. She received a three-year Kellogg Foundation leadership fellowship in 1994 and studied the field of human genetic research and its implications for indigenous peoples. She serves on the board of the Council for Responsible Genetics based in Cambridge, MA. She earned a master's degree in community economic development from New Hampshire College.

Ms. Harry's publications include:
2002 Genetics and Native Identity, article published in Native Americas, Hemispheric Journal of Indigenous Issues, Spring/Summer 2002, p. 52
2001 The New Wave of Colonialism, Splice Magazine, January/April 2001 Volume 7 Issues 2&3 UK
1999 Human Population Genetics versus the HGDP, by Harry, Debra and Marks, Jonathan, Politics and the Life Sciences, Volume 18, No. 2, September 1999, pps. 303-305
1995 The Human Genome Project: Implications for Indigenous Peoples, Abya Yala News and Indigenous Woman Magazine, Vol.II No.2
1990 Mending the Sacred Hoop, article in Equal Means magazine.

For further information about the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism, please go to: http://www.ipcb.org/.

For further information about this year's lecture, please contact Debbie Meinbresse in the STS Program, phone: 617-253-4062.

Please join us on October 24th.