This past week’s lecture was delivered by Dr. Georgia Dunston. The lecture focused on the history and legacy of Howard University in the pursuit of wisdom in the 21st century. When I first sat down in the lecture and glanced at the screen I thought, “What does the genome have to do with fulfilling the legacy of Howard’s legacy as well as other social problems?” Well in this session she formulates her focus on wisdom from a biological perspective. Our genome influences our thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes in various ways. The genome provides a set of instructions that are received which helps us understand why we are the way we are. Dr. Dunston points out how genome based knowledge are challenging current concepts of health, life, and human identity, and in the process informing and facilitating human transformation. She emphasizes how it’s a social and scientific imperative to have Howard University’s full engagement in the human genome based knowledge revolution so that advances in the emergent of age of biology fulfills the U.S. Public Health Service “Healthy People 2010” goals of disease prevention, health promotion, and the elimination of health disparities. We must do the research and own the knowledge required to reclaim our inheritance; restore our health; build our communities; repair our cities, and reform our countries. Dunston discusses the notion that we are all, as human, biologically connected by our DNA and not just our race. With this knowledge I think that it would help everyone be able to relate better in regards to knowledge and ideas that each of us have to share. This lecture helped me realize that several fields of study our able to contribute to solving social problems in their own ways, even with biological thought.
-Ramona Williams
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