Rina Bliss, "What's Real About Race: Untangling Science, Genetics, and Society" (W.W. Norton, 2025)

Rina Bliss's 'Rethinking Intelligence' offers a critical overview of intelligence research, situating contemporary genetic studies within the longer history of eugenics and biased measurement. Aimed at general readers, the book explains how intelligence is measured, how those measures have been racialized, and how modern sociogenomic work and biotech applications can perpetuate harm. Bliss addresses commercial uses of genetic data, such as embryo selection and IQ-related consumer tests, and highlights ethical concerns raised by CRISPR and other genetic technologies. The book argues for re-evaluating assumptions about heredity, environment, and measurement to safeguard social equity.

In 'Race Decoded,' Rina Bliss analyzes the dissonance between genomic scientists' public claims that race lacks a biological basis and their routine use of racial labels and categories in research practice. Drawing on interviews, archival materials, and fieldwork with geneticists and biotech firms, Bliss shows how databases, sample labeling, and institutional norms perpetuate race as a research category. The book situates these scientific practices within broader social and historical processes that give race material power. It also explores the implications for knowledge production and public understanding of genetics, urging more reflexive scientific standards. 'Race Decoded' is an academic contribution to science and technology studies and sociology of race.

In 'Social by Nature,' Rina Bliss examines the interdisciplinary field of sociogenomics, tracing how genetic research has been directed toward social traits and outcomes like education, behavior, and economic decisions. She analyzes the formation of the field, its methods, and the boundary work that shapes what counts as legitimate inquiry into genes and behavior. Bliss considers how categories like race, gender, and sexuality enter sociogenomic research and influence findings and interpretations. The book critiques the commercialization and policy implications of such research, including its translation into industry products. It calls for more careful consideration of social context when interpreting genetic associations.

Rina Bliss examines the history and contemporary life of race as a purportedly genetic category, tracing its origins in colonial and scientific classification to modern genomics and biotech practices. She shows how race is inconsistently deployed across research, medicine, industry, and policy, and how those practices produce and sustain racialized outcomes. Drawing on interviews with genome scientists, sociogenomics research, and personal narrative, Bliss critiques attempts to biologize race while highlighting racism's material impacts on bodies and lives. The book argues for more responsible scientific practices, including limiting use of racial categories to research explicitly addressing discrimination. It is written for general and academic audiences to clarify what is socially real about race and how to move forward ethically.