Lecture 17.02.2025
Speaker: Muna AnNisa Aikins
Muna AnNisa Aikins enriched the kick-off meeting with a public lecture on “Racism as a Topic in Bioethics”. Muna AnNisa Aikins is a social scientist, author, and consultant specializing in racism, health, development, and social justice. She is co-director and researcher of the Afrozensus research project at Each One Teach One e.V. (EOTO). Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in developmental psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, where she investigates the bio-social interactions of racialized inequalities and their impact on health.
In her talk, Muna AnNisa Aikins explored why racism, as a bio-social phenomenon, should be a subject of biomedical research. At the same time, she raised ethical questions about anti-racist research. For instance: How can the biological effects of racism be studied without reinforcing misconceptions about race? How can racism be made visible as a structural process? What are the ethical requirements for such research projects? She addressed these questions with reference to insights from the community-based Afrozensus research project and other current research findings.