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
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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
Jan Baedke (Ruhr University Bochum)
Event Details

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.