New Speaker and Critical Race Theorist, Terence Keel, talks racism, science, and religion

One of the many disturbing attributes of anti-black racism is its pervasive nature. From its inception, it has seeped into, and in many cases been the driving force in, science, public policy, art, and even our religious beliefs. Because racism haunts many corners of our everyday lives—often without our awareness—it wreaks havoc on our society in small and monumental ways. From the environmental and health injustices experienced by the black and brown residents of Flint, Michigan, to the white evangelical support of the rioters who stormed Capitol Hill, racism has not only been a public health issue, but a religious issue, a political issue, a mental health issue and more.

Outspoken speaker and race-based science expert, Terence Keel, is a nationally known critic whose teaching, research, and community engagement are concerned with abolishing discrimination in our society by investigating and disrupting the threads of racism in science, history, and religion. He believes we must interrogate those most precious and private histories if we hope to forge a path towards anti-Black racism.

An Associate Professor with a split appointment in the Department of African American Studies, and the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, Keel is a critical race theorist, historian of science, and scholar of religion who has written widely about American biomedical science, religion, law, and modern thought. He is also the Founding Director of the Lab for BioCritical Studies, an interdisciplinary space committed to studying how discrimination, inequality, and resilience are embodied in human and nonhuman beings.

His first book, Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science, explained how Christian thought made possible the development of the race concept in Euro-American science while also shaping the moral and epistemic commitments embedded in the study of human biology.

Drawing on the collaborative work of his Lab for BioCritical Studies, Keel is writing a third book titled, Society after Nihilism: The Medicolegal Erasure of Accountability at the End of American Life. In this book, he identifies troubling forms of discrimination that haunt public record laws, autopsy science, and unarmed death while under the custody of law enforcement.

Keel is now available to speak at your next virtual event or in-person engagements about faith and division, racism as a public health issue and how knowing science can help us become anti-racist. Email us to bring Terence to speak at your event.