Charmaine Royal, the Robert O. Keohane Professor of African & African American Studies, Biology, Global Health and Family Medicine & Community Health was recently selected as one of The Hastings Center 2024 Fellows.
The Hastings Center fellows are a distinguished group of around 300 experts whose work has shaped scholarship and public understanding of ethical challenges in health, healthcare, science and technology. These prestigious fellowships reflect influence in advancing ethical scholarship, policy and public understanding in health, science and technology.
The Hastings Center, founded in 1969 by philosopher Daniel Callahan and psychoanalyst Willard Gaylin, is the world’s oldest independent, nonpartisan, interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to bioethics. It draws from fields like philosophy, law, political science and education, and was pivotal in establishing bioethics.
Royal, who is a geneticist, is Director of the Duke Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference and the Duke Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation. Her work focuses on the intersection of genetics and “race.” Her goal is to 1) debunk the myth of biological human races and racial hierarchies, and 2) challenge the intellectual and institutional frameworks built on these misconceptions.
“I am honored to be elected as a Hastings Center Fellow,” said Royal. “It is both humbling and gratifying to have my work on ethical and social issues in human genetics and genomics be recognized, and I look forward to even greater engagement with the Center to advance its efforts and the field of bioethics as a whole.”