Genetic Past and Genomic Future: lecture series at UNCG

Many thanks to Dr. Carlina DeLaCova of the University of North Carolina Greensboro for letting me know about the exciting 2010-2011 Harriet Elliott Lecture Series taking place this week at UNCG. John Hawks will be delivering the keynote address.

Dear Colleagues and Community,


As hosts of the 2010-2011 Harriet Elliott Lecture Series, the Department of Anthropology at UNCG is pleased to announce the upcoming keynote address and panel discussion on the theme, “Our Genetic Past and Genomic Future: Connecting the Science of Human Origins to Contemporary Life.” This year’s events will be held on Wednesday, March 23, 2011.

In preparation for the event, we would like to invite you to visit the event’s blog: http://harrietelliottuncg.wordpress.com/. The blog will provide an opportunity to engage with the events’ themes, generate questions to be posed to our panelists and keynote speaker, and archive interesting news pieces related to the theme.

Please find below our participant’s bios and a summary of the day’s events. For more information, visit: http://www.uncg.edu/aas/lectureseries/

Panel Discussion (3-5 pm in the EUC Auditorium)
The panel will focus on the intersection between the scientific study of human origins, evolution, and variability and its everyday applications--that is, how it affects people’s lives in terms of biomedical practice, conceptions of difference and risk, and social identity. Moderated by Dr. Cheryl Logan (UNCG History and Psychology), the panel will bring together three distinguished scholars:

Lee Baker (Duke University) - Dean of Academic Affairs, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, and Professor of Cultural Anthropology and African and African American Studies. Dr. Baker is the author of From Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race, 1896-1954 (University of California Press, 1998), Anthropology and the Racial Politics of Culture (Duke University Press, 2010), and editor of Life In America: Identity and Everyday Experience (Blackwell Publishing, 2003).

Alondra Nelson (Columbia University) - Associate Professor of Sociology. Dr. Nelson holds an appointment at Columbia’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender and is the author of Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party's Politics of Health and Race (University of Minnesota Press, 2011) and co-editor of Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of Race, DNA and History (Rutgers University Press, 2011).

Fatimah Jackson (UNC Chapel Hill) Professor of Biological Anthropology and Director of the Institute of African-American Research. Dr. Jackson’s research has focused human metabolic and genomic effects of exposure to plant allelochemicals, genomic models of biological diversity in contemporary and historic African peoples, and bioanthropological perspectives on human disease (especially infectious diseases). In 2000, she cofounded the first human DNA bank on the African continent.


Harriet Elliott Keynote Address (7-9 pm in the Meade Auditorium, 101 Sullivan)
“Neandertime: Deciphering the Secrets of Ancient Genomes”
Following the panel discussion, the invited talk will address current debates within the field of anthropology around the topic of human genetic evolution.

John Hawks (University of Wisconsin Madison) - Associate Professor of Anthropology. He is well known within the field of biological anthropology for his public engagement with current topics of research, including his own blog (http://johnhawks.net/weblog).

Please note that in between the panel discussion and featured talk there will be a reception held from 5-6:30 pm in the Kirkland Room of the EUC.

For a map of UNCG’s campus, which includes the parking garages for both events, please see: http://www.uncg.edu/online_map/.

We look forward to the exciting debates this year’s lecture series will foster and hope that you will join us in the on-going discussions. Finally, we are attaching a PDF of the poster announcing the events.


Thank you very much.

Sincerely,


Carlina de la Cova

Assistant Professor
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Anthropology Department

Carlina de la Cova is awesome! (X2)

Biological anthropologist and fellow IU alum Dr. Carlina de la Cova of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro has a paper in the latest issue of American Anthropologist: Cultural Patterns of Trauma among 19th-Century-Born Males in Cadaver Collections. Gotta love work that incorporates systematic examination of skeletal collections with analyses of class and culture. Plus, the woman uses "fisticuffs" in her list of keywords. THAT, my friends, is what awesome looks like.

Keywords:interpersonal violence;trauma;African American history;19th-century history;fisticuffs
ABSTRACT  Comprehending violence among bioarchaeological and historical groups is a topic of recent interest among biological anthropologists. This research examines trauma among African American and Euro-American males of low socioeconomic status born between 1825 and 1877. A total of 651 male skeletons from the Cobb, Terry, and Hamann-Todd anatomical collections were macroscopically evaluated for skeletal trauma, based on the presence of fractures and weapon-related wounds, and statistically analyzed according to ancestry, birth (Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction), combined ancestry–birth, and collection cohorts. Results indicated that African Americans and Euro-Americans expressed ethnic differences in regard to interpersonal violence. To interpret these disparities, documentary data were used to reconstruct the socioeconomic and cultural environment of these individuals. This research emphasizes the importance of evaluating skeletal data within the context of class, culture, and environment so that behavioral patterns observed in the skeleton can be better understood.

ADDENDUM:
Carlina is on fire this week, with another paper out in AJPA:

Race, health, and disease in 19th-century-born males
ABSTRACT This study analyzed skeletal health disparities among African American and Euro-American males of low socioeconomic status born between 1825 and 1877. A total of 651 skeletons from the Cobb, Hamann-Todd, and Terry anatomical collections were macroscopically examined for skeletal pathologies related to dietary deficiencies and disease. Individuals were separated into age, ancestry, birth (Antebellum, Civil War, Pre-Reconstruction, and Reconstruction), combined ancestry/birth, enslaved versus liberated, and collection cohorts. These groups were statistically evaluated using ANOVA and χ2 analyses to determine if age, ethnic, and temporal differences existed. Results indicated that African Americans, especially those born during Reconstruction, had significantly higher frequencies of tuberculosis (P = 0.004) and treponematosis (P = 0.006) than Euro-Americans. Historical sources are important in contextualizing why these different ethnic and temporal patterns were present, pointing to environmental conditions related to enslavement, postliberation migration to the industrialized North, crowded urban living conditions, and poor sanitation.

I'll warn you that "fisticuffs" does not appear as a key word, but "treponematosis" does so the awesome still abides.