• Helena Hansen
  • Professor and Chair of Research Theme in Translational Social Science and Health Equity at UCLA, David Geffen School of Medicine
  • Lecture Date: 2021-04-23

Hansen's talk draws from her forthcoming book Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Heroin in America. Whiteout deploys ethnographic and historical analysis of pharmaceutical manufacturers, regulators, neuroscientists and addiction physicians to track technologies of whiteness in neuroscience, pharmaceutical development, regulation and marketing that stem from drug policies that date back over a century. Based on a decade of participant observation, interviews and archival research, Whiteout updates theories of racial capitalism to reveal how biotechnological industries are driven by white consumption rather than black labor.

Social and Behavioral Sciences Dean’s Distinguished Lectureship SeriesView all the SBS Dean’s Distinguished Lectures in Anthropology

Since 2016, the Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences has sponsored bringing a prominent expert in the fields of Africana studies, anthropology, criminal justice, economics, geography, Latino and Caribbean studies, political science, psychology, and sociology to present a public lecture and participate in seminars, workshops, and Q&As within the department for undergraduates, graduate students and faculty.