About this Event
Event description
For generations, we have treated nature and nurture like rival teams: either your genes made you who you are, or your upbringing did. It is a satisfying argument, which may be why it refuses to die. But the science has become much harder to fit into that tidy old binary.
In this talk, Omar Dabash revisits the nature-versus-nurture debate through behavioural genetics, genomics, neuroscience, and epigenetics. Drawing on research into memory, intelligence, mental health, and the genetics of behavioural and psychiatric conditions, he explores how biology, development, environment, and social context are constantly shaping one another across a lifetime.
Along the way, the evening takes on some of the myths that keep returning in public conversation: the simple stories we tell about genes, parenting, trauma, personality, intelligence, and behaviour. This is not a talk about whether nature or nurture wins. It is about why they were never really opponents in the first place.
What the audience will walk away with
- A clearer way to understand how genes can influence our lives without determining them.
- A practical framework for seeing how development, environment, and social context interact with biology.
- Better questions to ask when claims about intelligence, trauma, personality, or mental health sound too neat.
- A more skeptical eye for simplistic genetic explanations and self-optimisation claims.
About the speaker
Omar Dabash is a multidisciplinary scientist trained in psychology, political science, neuroscience, and genomics. His work has spanned mental health, memory, intelligence, brain injury, and healthcare transformation, and he now works across research, policy, and life sciences in Montreal.
Event venue & nearby stays
Clebard, 4557 Rue Saint-Denis, Montréal, Canada
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