Talk by David Price: American Social Science, Torture, and Interrogation

David Price (Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Saint Martin’s University) will speak about the ethics scandal implicating the American Psychological Association.

Abstract: Two months ago the American Psychological Association (APA) released an over 500 page independent fact finding report concluding that in the years after September 2001 the APA had altered its professional ethics policies to accommodate CIA interrogation and torture.  The report, written by a former federal prosecutor details how top officials in one of the world’s largest social science professional organizations dismantled clear ethical safeguards, designed to prevent these types of practices, and ignored and marginalized a group of APA members speaking out against these practices.  David Price will discuss details of this APA scandal, the history of social science interactions with military and intelligence agencies, and will contrast significant institutional differences between the APA response to post 9/11 requests from military and intelligence agencies and the institutional responses of the American Anthropological Association.
 
Bio: David Price is Professor of Anthropology in St. Martin’s University’s Department of Society and Social Justice, he written several books using the Freedom of Information Act to document historical relationships between anthropologists and members of military and intelligence agencies.  He is the author of Weaponizing Anthropology: Social Science Service of the Militarized State  (CounterPunch Books, 2011) and the forthcoming Cold War Anthropology: The CIA, the Pentagon, and the Growth of Dual Use Anthropology (Duke University Press, Spring 2016).