Decolonizing Anthropological Genetics

In lieu of the organization's annual meetings, in November 2020 the American Association of Anthropologists organized the Raising of Voices online live-streaming event. With help from program chair Mayanthi Fernando and support from Agustin Fuentes, I organized a roundtable discussion panel: “Decolonizing Anthropological Genetics”.

In this session we discussed how a decolonizing approach can create a more equitable and sustainable anthropological genetics research practice for 2020 and beyond. Themes included (1) ethics and responsibilities of working with human remains and tissues; (2) community engagement and equitable collaboration in anthropological genetics; (3) sovereignty and governance of genetic datasets; (4) engagement with the social implications of genetics research. A recording of our session is posted here.

Session panelists: Krystal Tsosie (Vanderbilt University), Rick W. Smith (George Mason University), Chip Colwell (Sapiens), Jennifer Wagner (Geisinger Institute), Keolu Fox (University of California San Diego).