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CHAPEL HILL — Dr. Richard A. Soloway, one of the nation’s leading authorities on the intersection of science and the humanities, will discuss eugenics and genetic engineering on Oct. 2 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Perfecting the Imperfect: The Eugenic Foundations of Genetic Engineering," will be the title of his free public lecture from 4-5:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building on Pittsboro Street.

The talk will be this year’s E. Maynard Adams Lecture in the Humanities and Human Values. Audience members are invited to a reception afterward at the Carolina Inn. A banquet honoring Soloway as this year’s Adams lecturer will follow. Advance registration is needed for the banquet. Call (919) 962-1544 for registration and more information.

Genetic engineering – sometimes described as the "new eugenics" – has found its way into both popular and scientific parlance. Soloway says this is due in part to successful efforts to map the human genome, efforts that carry the promise of identifying and correcting a host of genetic flaws that plague humankind.

Soloway also says that genetic engineering has important implications for understanding the ethical and social dimensions of modern science, as evidenced today by the debate about stem cell research.

Soloway is the Eugen Merzbacher distinguished professor of history in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. He joined the UNC faculty in 1968. His primary interests are in the history of eugenics, birth control and population change in the later 19^th and 20^th centuries.

His books include "Birth Control and the Population Question in England, 1877-1930," and "Demography and Degeneration: Eugenics and the Declining Birth Rate in Twentieth Century Britain."

Soloway chaired UNC’s history department for six years and for seven years was senior associate dean and interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He has been closely involved with the humanities program as a frequent speaker at its Adventures in Ideas seminars.

The Adams Lecture honors the late E. Maynard Adams, who was a Kenan Professor of philosophy at UNC. Adams played a key role in the creation of the humanities program and advocated a role for the humanities and human values in contemporary education and culture.  

For more information about the lecture, call (919) 962-1544 or visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/human/level_3/2005_fall/adams_fall05.html.

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Photo URLs: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/SOLOWAY%20suit.jpg

College of Arts and Sciences contact: Kim Weaver Spurr, (919) 962-4093, spurrk@email.unc.edu