Event Title
Genetic Ancestry Testing: Medical and Social Consequences?
Location
Hart 212
Start Time
14-5-2009 10:30 AM
End Time
14-5-2009 11:15 AM
Description
The information contained within a detailed family history has considerable health importance in addition to its historical value and interest to family members. The field of genealogy has recently expanded through development of commercial services that aid in tracing ancestry through methods that rely on the hereditary molecule of DNA. I will report results from my 2008-2009 BSC Presidential Fellowship research on how DNA variation is used to trace ancestry and ways in which this information is used in conjunction with historical genealogical approaches. The implications of DNA methods for determining ancestry will be examined within the broader topic of how race and ethnicity information is currently used within health and medicine as well as the consequences that may result from conflating DNA determined human groupings with socially constructed racial categories.
Genetic Ancestry Testing: Medical and Social Consequences?
Hart 212
The information contained within a detailed family history has considerable health importance in addition to its historical value and interest to family members. The field of genealogy has recently expanded through development of commercial services that aid in tracing ancestry through methods that rely on the hereditary molecule of DNA. I will report results from my 2008-2009 BSC Presidential Fellowship research on how DNA variation is used to trace ancestry and ways in which this information is used in conjunction with historical genealogical approaches. The implications of DNA methods for determining ancestry will be examined within the broader topic of how race and ethnicity information is currently used within health and medicine as well as the consequences that may result from conflating DNA determined human groupings with socially constructed racial categories.