Alondra Nelson

“Black Feminist Futures”

Alondra Nelson is professor of sociology at Columbia University, where she served as the inagural Dean of Social Science. She was previously on the faculty of Yale University and received its Poorvu Award for teaching excellence. On September 1, 2017, she will become President of the Social Science Research Council, an organization that has been dedicated to advancement of social research for the public good for more than nine decades.

A sociologist widely known for her work on the intersections of science, technology and social inequality, her books include The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome, which is a finalist for the 2017 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and will soon be available in an Arabic translation, and Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination, which was recognized with several awards and has been translated into French. Her publications also include Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History (with Keith Wailoo and Catherine Lee) and Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life (with Thuy Linh Tu). In 2002, she edited “Afrofuturism,” an influential special issue of Social Text.

Her detailed bio is available here: http://www.alondranelson.com/about