2026 BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK – ANNUAL DISTINGUISHED NEUROETHICS LECTURE
2026 Distinguished Neuroethics Speaker:
Oliver Rollins, PhD, Old Dominion Career Development Professor and Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society (STS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Event details:
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
C300 Theatre, UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 3B7 (map)
Register here for free: https://bit.ly/2026baw
Overview:
For more than a century, scientists have searched the brain for the origins of violent behavior. From early criminologists hunting for physical “marks” of criminality to today’s neuroscientists mapping risk and prediction, the idea of the “born criminal” has proven remarkably durable. This lecture explores why that idea persists—and why it continues to get both violence and society wrong. Drawing on the research from Dr. Rollins’ book, Conviction: The Making and Unmaking of the Violent Brain, he will discuss how modern neuroscience often recycles old assumptions about danger, race, and human nature under the banner of cutting edge science. Rather than revealing some biological truth of violence or crime, these efforts frequently reinforce social fears, shape unequal criminal justice policies, and obscure the broader conditions that produce harm. By unpacking the scientific fascination with “risky brains”, this lecture invites a deeper ethical conversation about what counts as brain evidence, whose lives become sites of neuroscientific investigation, and how neuroscience might (re)imagine its role in social responsibility, safety, and justice differently.
DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER
Oliver Rollins, PhD
Dr. Oliver Rollins is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society (STS). His research examines how neuroscience intersects with social difference and systemic inequality, particularly race/racism. He is the author of Conviction: The Making and Unmaking of The Violent Brain (Stanford University Press), a critical analysis of neuroimaging research on antisocial behavior and the ethical, social, and technical limits of predictive brain models. Rollins’s current projects investigate two key areas: (1) the social implications of “neurolaw” and how neuroscientific knowledge becomes legally actionable, reshaping concepts of justice and vulnerability; and (2) the enduring legacy of scientific racism in the mind and brain sciences, exploring the challenges of studying race and difference in contemporary neuroscience.
Dr. Rollins received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Before joining MIT, he held faculty positions at the University of Washington and the University of Louisville and was a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Pennsylvania’s Program on Race, Science, & Society. Rollins’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and he has extensive experience as a collaborating researcher, including projects funded by The Dana Foundation, NSF, and The Wellcome Trust.
