Creating and Using Historical Resources to Enhance Public Participation

Historical case studies provide knowledge of patterns and contexts of controversies about the human, social, and political consequences and governance of new and proposed genetic technologies. Examples include historical documentation of continuing conflicts related to commercialization and patenting of academic biomedical research, past and current efforts to anticipate the consequences of genetic technologies, and struggles for public participation rather than self-regulation in determining the safety and ethical limits of recombinant DNA research, human gene therapy, and synthetic biology. [See articles I submitted for Tarrytown meeting.]

Archival video materials documenting public hearings, community forums, interviews, and news events are especially valuable when used with other historical documents in classroom teaching, public education, and teacher training. Website libraries of well-cataloged excerpts from such materials can be downloaded and used for reading assignments, curriculum modules, research, and public discussion.

To illustrate some possibilities I’ll show some brief excerpts from the video I made with MIT students in 1976 of the now historic Cambridge, MA hearings on the safety of recombinant DNA research, and explain how it’s been used as an educational resource since then, including recent use in a biological engineering undergraduate class.