Aaron Panofsky

Education

Ph.D. Sociology, New York University
B.A. Science Studies (Interdisciplinary Studies), Amherst College

Bio

Aaron Panofsky is the Director of and a Professor in the Institute for Society and Genetics, as well as a Professor in Public Policy, and Sociology. He is a sociologist of science, knowledge, and culture with a special interest on the history, intellectual organization, social dimensions, and ethical implications of genetics.

His award-winning book Misbehaving Science is a history of the field of behavior genetics that explains how the way scientists have dealt with successive episodes of controversy have shaped the field’s culture and organization and limited its intellectual possibilities. He has also written critically about attempts to apply behavior genetics to problems of social policy and education. Professor Panofsky has also researched how genetics is transforming the concept of race. Building upon several articles, he is writing a book tentatively titled Unjust Malaise that argues appeals to genetics render the race concept more ambiguous and confuse our understanding of racial differences in ways that leave the science open to political misuses. A related research project (with collaborators Kushan Dasgupta, Joan Donavan, Nicole Iturriaga, and Bernard Koch) has considered the uses and misuses of genetics by far-right individuals and groups who constitute a citizen science movement aiming to revitalize scientific racism. And an additional project, “Going Meta” (with collaborator David Peterson), considers how scientists and science policy activists are responding to doubts among the public and scientists themselves about the quality and effectiveness of scientific expertise. The project tracks the strategy of taking a synoptic, meta-perspective— for example, applying big-data scientific tools, deploying AI automation, pursuing forensic investigations and systematic replications, and building new practices and infrastructures—to make science visible and reformable in new ways.

His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Carnegie Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
Recent courses have included: Biotechnology and Society (First year cluster), Science Policy and Expertise, What’s Wrong with Science?, and Problems of Identity at the Biology/Society Interface: What is Race?

Keywords

Science and Technology Studies, Sociology, Genetics, Race and Racism, Social Movements, Science Policy, Ethics, Public Participation, Expertise.

Awards & Honors

Andrew Carnegie Fellow, Andrew Carnegie Foundation, 2020-2023

David Edge Prize for Best Article, for “Genetic Ancestry Testing Among White Nationalists” with Joan Donovan, Society for Social Studies of Science, 2020.

Star-Nelkin Award for Best Article, for “Genetic Ancestry Testing Among White Nationalists” with Joan Donovan, American Sociological Association, Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section, 2020.

Elected Chair, American Sociological Association, Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section, 2019-2022

Robert K. Merton Book Award, Honorable Mention, for Misbehaving Science, American Sociological Association, Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section, 2017

President’s Book Award, for Misbehaving Science, Social Science History Association, 2015

Book

Aaron Panofsky (Chicago, 2014) Misbehaving Science: Controversy and the Development of Behavior Genetics

Selected Articles

Aaron Panofsky, Kushan Dasgupta, Nicole Iturriaga, and Bernard Koch. 2024. “Confronting the ‘Weaponization’ of Genetics by Racists Online and Elsewhere,” in “Envisioning a More Just Genomics,” ed. Josephine Johnston, Deanne Dunbar Dolan, Danielle M. Pacia, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, and Mildred K. Cho, special report, Hastings Center Report 54(S2): S14–S21. DOI: 10.1002/hast.4925

Leah Savage and Aaron Panofsky. 2023. “The Self-Fulfilling Process of Clinical Race Correction: The Case of JNC 8 Recommendations.” Health Equity. 7: 793-802. https://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2023.0064

David Peterson and Aaron Panofsky. 2023. “Metascience as a Scientific Social Movement.” Minerva. 61:147-174.

Haley Branch, Amanda Klingler, Kelsey Byers, Aaron Panofsky, and Danielle Peers. 2022. “Discussions of the “Not So Fit”: How Ableism Limits Diverse Thought and Investigative Potential in Evolutionary Biology.” The American Naturalist. 200(1):101-113. https://doi.org/10.1086/720003

Anna C.F. Lewis, Santiago J. Molina, Paul S. Appelbaum, Bege Dauda, Anna Di Rienzo, Agustin Fuentes, Stephanie M. Fullerton, Nanibaa’ A. Garrison, Nayanika Ghosh, Evelynn M. Hammonds, David S. Jones, Eimear E. Kenny, Peter Kraft, Sandra S-J. Lee, Madelyn Mauro, John Novembre, Aaron Panofsky, Mashaal Sohail, Benjamin M. Neale, Danielle S. Allen. 2022. “Getting genetic ancestry right for science and society.” Science. Apr 15;376(6590):250-252. doi: 10.1126/science.abm7530. Epub 2022 Apr 14. PMID: 35420968.

Aaron Panofsky, Kushan Dasgupta, and Nicole Iturriaga. 2021. “How White Nationalists Mobilize Genetics: From Genetic Ancestry and Human Biodiversity to Counterscience and Metapolitics.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology.175(2): 387-98.

Aaron Panofsky and Joan Donovan. 2019. “Genetic Ancestry Testing among White Nationalists: From Identity Repair to Citizen Science.” Social Studies of Science. 49(5): 653-681.

Aaron Panofsky and Catherine Bliss. 2017. “Ambiguity and Scientific Authority: Population Classification in Genomic Science.” American Sociological Review. 82(1): 59–87.

Christopher Kelty and Aaron Panofsky. 2014. “Disentangling Public Participation In Science and Biomedicine.” Genome Medicine. 6(8).

Hannah Landecker and Aaron Panofsky. 2013. “From Social Structure to Gene Regulation, and Back:  A Critical Introduction to Environmental Epigenetics for Sociology.” Annual Review of Sociology. 39:333-357.

Aaron L. Panofsky. 2011. “Field Analysis and Interdisciplinary Science: Scientific Capital Exchange in Behavior Genetics.” Minerva. 49:295-316.

Aaron Panofsky. 2011. “Generating Sociability to Drive Science: Patient Advocacy Organizations and Genetics Research.” Social Studies of Science. 41:31-57.

Links

UCLA Department of Public Policy
UCLA Department of Sociology