X men first class

Feb 24

2025
with

Shoumita Dasgupta, Ph.D.

Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean of Diversity & Inclusion, Boston University

X-Men: First Class— How much of our social identities are actually based in genetics?

Boston University geneticist and author Shoumita Dasgupta (Where Biology Ends and Bias Begins: Lessons on Belonging from Our DNA) uses the latest science to correct common misconceptions about how much of our social identities are actually based in genetics, and talk about how we can approach scientific evidence in a socially responsible way.

Coolidge Corner Theatre Brookline, MA

Tickets

Film Synopsis

In the 1960s, superpowered humans Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr work together to find others like them, but Erik's vengeful pursuit of an ambitious mutant who ruined his life causes a schism to divide them.

    In the early 1960s, during the height of the Cold War, a mutant named Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) meets a fellow mutant named Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender). Despite their vastly different backgrounds -- Charles grew up with a wealthy family, while Erik lost his parents at Auschwitz -- the two become close friends. As the world teeters on the brink of a nuclear war, Charles and Erik with other mutants join forces to save humanity. However, a situation soon tears the friends apart.

    Photo credit: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

    About the Speaker

    Shoumita Dasgupta is the daughter of Bengali immigrants, a woman of color in STEM, and a scientist educator and geneticist. She is Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean of Diversity & Inclusion at Boston University, a Fulbright Specialist, and a member of the inaugural cohort of faculty affiliates at the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.