Events

KLI Colloquia are invited research talks of about an hour followed by 30 min discussion. The talks are held in English, open to the public, and offered in hybrid format. 

 

Fall-Winter 2025-2026 KLI Colloquium Series

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5881861923?omn=85945744831
Meeting ID: 588 186 1923

 

25 Sept 2025 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

A Dynamic Canvas Model of Butterfly and Moth Color Patterns

Richard Gawne (Nevada State Museum)

 

14 Oct 2025 (Tues) 3-4:30 PM CET

Vienna, the Laboratory of Modernity

Richard Cockett (The Economist)

 

23 Oct 2025 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

How Darwinian is Darwinian Enough? The Case of Evolution and the Origins of Life

Ludo Schoenmakers (KLI)

 

6 Nov (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

Common Knowledge Considered as Cause and Effect of Behavioral Modernity

Ronald Planer (University of Wollongong)

 

20 Nov (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

Rates of Evolution, Time Scaling, and the Decoupling of Micro- and Macroevolution

Thomas Hansen (University of Oslo)

 

4 Dec (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

Chance, Necessity, and the Evolution of Evolvability

Cristina Villegas (KLI)

 

8 Jan 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

Embodied Rationality: Normative and Evolutionary Foundations

Enrico Petracca (KLI)

 

15 Jan 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

On Experimental Models of Developmental Plasticity and Evolutionary Novelty

Patricia Beldade (Lisbon University)

 

29 Jan 2026 (Thurs) 3-4:30 PM CET

O Theory Where Art Thou? The Changing Role of Theory in Theoretical Biology in the 20th Century and Beyond

Jan Baedke (Ruhr University Bochum)

Event Details

KLI Colloquia
Pre-symptomatic Genetic Counselling in Austrian Clinical Practice
Bernhard HADOLT
2018-01-25 15:00 - 2018-01-25 16:30
KLI
Organized by KLI

Topic description / abstract:

The striking rise of molecular genetic diagnostics since the 1990s has fostered novel forms of medical knowledge and a new kind of biological information by means of which a predisposition to future ailments, such as Huntington’s disease and familiar breast cancer, has become diagnosable long in advance of any symptoms. Such predictive or pre-symptomatic genetic tests promise great advances in controlling diseases. However, they also give rise to a number of clinical, social and political issues. Besides the low predictability and therapeutic usefulness of many genetic tests, these issues include safeguarding the welfare of patients and their families, maintaining the privacy of genetic data, protection against genetic discrimination, and what is discusses as ‘geneticization of everyday life’. Genetic counselling, which in many countries is mandatory before undergoing genetic testing, is intended to mitigate such problems. In this talk I discuss these issues by presenting some of our findings in an ethnographic study that looked into pre-symptomatic genetic counselling as it is put into clinical practice in Austria.

 

Biosketch:

Bernhard Hadolt (PhD, MA, MSc) is a social anthropologist with a particular interest in medical anthropology, especially the anthropology of biomedicine. He carried out research in Austria, Japan, and the Philippines on various topics revolving around social practices, social transformation, and policy making in the fields of assisted reproductive technology, genetic testing, vaccination and blood donation. His current research focusses on the marketing and implementation of HPV-vaccines in health care systems and tissue economies in relation to blood donation. Currently, he is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna; positions as Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna (2011-2016), Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, (2015), and Kyoto University (2011), Research Fellow at Osaka University (2007-2008), Senior Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, (2004-2009), Researcher at the Research Institute of Cultural and Social Sciences, Vienna, (2000-2002). He has been lecturing at higher education level at various universities in Austria, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan.