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2010 Visiting Lecture Series – Identity, Ancestry & Heritage: Multidisciplinary Perspectives

37th ANNUAL VISITING LECTURE SERIES

“Identity, Ancestry & Heritage: Multidisciplinary Perspectives”

Current Trends in Anthropology
Anthropology 357/450
Tues • Thurs 3:40 pm – 4:55 pm

Contemporary Issues in Anthropology
Anthropology 550
Mon • Wed 10:10 am – 12:05 pm

Coordinator: Dr. Graciela S. Cabana

This series explores how “identity” is constructed through understandings of heritage and ancestry. “Identity,” as it is commonly used today, has a dual, linked sense, as both social and personal identity. As a social category, identity is defined by membership rules and (alleged) characteristic attributes or expected behaviors. Personal identity is some distinguishing characteristic (or characteristics) that a person takes a special pride in or views as socially consequential but more-or-less unchangeable.

A key part of identity is heritage and ancestry. Though we typically think of these two concepts as given, or fixed, parts of who we are, we are actually constantly engaged in “heritage-making.”  That is, we adopt and mobilize conceptualizations of heritage, including ethnicity, gender status, class, and even “race,” in personal and social identity formation. Beyond individual identity, heritage is also about regional or national identities (or religious identities) and the construction/maintenance/remembering of narratives revolving around individuals or events that are seen as foundational or embodying group values.

The broad purpose of this speaker series is to showcase anthropological approaches to identity, heritage, and ancestry. How have anthropologists incorporated identity studies into their work, and how have they explored the relationships between identity, heritage, and ancestry? While cultural anthropologists (and sociologists) have been addressing identity issues for decades, archaeologists (including bioarchaeologists) have only relatively recently done so. In contrast, biological anthropologists only occasionally touch on the topic directly.

Interestingly, it may be from biological anthropology – particularly in the field of genetics – that some of the most controversial work relating to identity has sprung, to the point that some have accused Anthropological Geneticists of bringing “race” back to the table. Therefore, a main question explored in this series is: how have any of these conceptualizations (of identity/heritage/ancestry) derived from scientific domains, and to what extent would this matter?

In sum, the speaker series aims to:

  1. Explore the importance of heritage and ancestry in identity formation.
  2. Understand how science, in all its manifestations and applications, shape both the present and past social world in terms of identity and identity formation.

Anthropology is an ideal discipline through which to explore this question, since anthropological practitioners have been engaged in all facets of identity politics as producers, consumers, observers, and critics. Because this topic crosscuts other scholarly disciplines, however, the series will also welcome and include speakers outside of Anthropology.

1 Fearon (1999): “What is Identity (As We Now Use the Word)?” http://www.stanford.edu/~jfearon

Participate in the VoiceThread forums.

Schedule

Week 1
Aug 18 (W)

LIB 253
(10 am)

ANTH 550: Intro & organizational meeting

ANTH 550

Aug 19 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

ANTH 357/450: Intro & organizational meeting

ANTH 357/450

Week 2
Aug 24 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

DNA Identification, Human Rights, & Transitional Justice
Lindsay Smith, Ph.D., UCLA Center for Society & Genetics

ANTH 357/450

Aug 25 (W)

LIB 253
(10 am)

Subversive Identities:
Democracy & DNA in Post-Dictatorship Argentina
Lindsay Smith, Ph.D., UCLA Center for Society & Genetics

ANTH 550

Aug 26 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

To Cry or Not to Cry: Heritage, Genetic Identity, & the Ambivalence of Belonging in Argentina
Graciela S. Cabana, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 3
Aug 30 (M)

LIB Auditorium
(10 am)

The Sociocultural & Biological Correlates of Ethnic Substructure among New Mexican Hispanics
Heather Edgar, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of New Mexico

ANTH 550

Aug 31 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Using a Biohistorical Approach to Trace Population Change in the US
Heather Edgar, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of New Mexico

ANTH 357/450

Sept 2 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Identifying Victims from Mass Fatality Events: the World Trade Center Experience
Amy Z. Mundorff, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 4
Sept 7 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Our Genomes, Ourselves: Towards an Anthropology of the New Genetics
Karen-Sue Taussig, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Minnesota

ANTH 357/450

Sept 8 (W)

LIB 253
(10 am)

Genetics & Its Publics
Karen-Sue Taussig, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Minnesota

ANTH 550

Sept 9 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Interethnic Marriage & American Indian Identity
Michael Logan, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 5
Sept 14 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Being Native American or Mexican American & Being “At Risk” For Type 2 Diabetes: Genetics, Environmental Changes, & Racial Oppression
De Ann Pendry, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Sept 16 (Th)

LIB Auditorium
(3:40 pm)

One from Many? Mississippian Identity in the Late Prehistoric Southeast
Thaddeus Bisset, ABD, Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 6
Sept 21 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Passing for Black in 17th Century Maryland
Julie King, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, St. Mary’s College of Maryland

ANTH 357/450

Sept 22 (W)

LIB 253
(10 am)

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss: Archaeology, Narrative, & the Construction of Historical Identity in 21st Century Maryland
Julie King, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, St. Mary’s College of Maryland

ANTH 550

Sept 23 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Material Culture, Identity, & Enslavement in Virginia
Barbara Heath, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 7
Sept 27 (M)

LIB Auditorium
(10 am)

The Genetics of Biological Aging in Mennonite Populations of Kansas
Michael Crawford, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Kansas

ANTH 550

Sept 28 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Russian Contact & its Sequelæ in the Aleutian Archipelago
Michael Crawford, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Kansas

ANTH 357/450

Sept 30 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Enslaved African Diet in the Antebellum New World
Walter Klippel, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 8
Oct 5 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Social Memory & the Archaeological Record: How Societies Create a Collective Memory of the Past
Jessica Dalton-Carriger, Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Oct 7 (Th)

FALL BREAK

Week 9
Oct 11 (M)

LIB Auditorium
(10 am)

DNA Testing for Ancestry: Science & Cynicism
Rick Kittles, Ph.D., Dept of Medicine, U. of Illinois at Chicago

ANTH 550

Oct 12 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Genetic Ancestry, Race & Disease
Rick Kittles, Ph.D., Dept of Medicine, U. of Illinois at Chicago

ANTH 357/450

Oct 14 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Which Doctors are Witchdoctors? The Impact of Medical Pluralism in Southwest Uganda
Julia Hanebrink, Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 10
Oct 19 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Variegated Privileges of Whiteness:
Lived Experiences of Skilled Migrants in Norway
Micheline van Riemsdijk, Ph.D., Dept of Geography, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Oct 21 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Gendered Identity Construction in the Context of Research
Lois Presser, Ph.D., Dept of Sociology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 11
Oct 26 (T)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Pharmaceutical Politics in Latin America
Donna Goldstein, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Colorado at Boulder

ANTH 357/450

Oct 27 (W)

LIB 253
(10 am)

Expérimentalité:  Pharmaceutical Insights into Anthropology’s Epistemologically Fractured Self
Donna Goldstein, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Colorado at Boulder

ANTH 550

Oct 28 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Ethnic Identity, Displacement & Human Rights:
South Sudanese at home & in the Diaspora
Marisa Ensor, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 12
Nov 2 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Archaeology as Social Memory:  Heritage Issues in Indigenous Archaeology
Stephen W. Silliman, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Massachusetts, Boston

ANTH 357/450

Nov 3 (W)

LIB 253
(10 am)

Archaeologies of Identity & Practice:
Beyond Culture Change & Continuity
Stephen W. Silliman, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Massachusetts, Boston

ANTH 550

Nov 4 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Flights: Black American Travelers and the Search for Africa
Michelle Commander, Ph.D., Dept of English, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 13
Nov 9 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Bullets & Bones: Men with Custer
Douglas Scott, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Nebraska-Lincoln

ANTH 357/450

Nov 10 (W)

LIB 253
(10 am)

“The Cult of the Fallen”: Identity & Meaning of War Dead
Douglas Scott, Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, U. of Nebraska-Lincoln

ANTH 550

Nov 11 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Righting Unrightable Wrongs: Legacies of Violence and Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro, North Carolina
Joshua Inwood, Ph.D., Dept of Geography, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 14
Nov 15 (M)

LIB Auditorium
(10 am)

Sidestepping Race with Genetic Ancestry: Genes as Solution or Problem?
Stephanie Malia Fullerton, Ph.D., Dept of Bioethics & Humanities, U. of Washington

ANTH 550

Nov 16 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Using Genetic Ancestry in Epidemiological Research: Key Assumptions
Stephanie Malia Fullerton, Ph.D., Dept of Bioethics & Humanities, U. of Washington

ANTH 357/450

Nov 18 (Th)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Excursions in Identity: Travel, Gender, and Status on the Roads of Edo Japan (1600-1868)
Laura Nenzi, Ph.D., Dept of History, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 15
Nov 23 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

Pact with the Devil: Bwa Kayiman, Haitian Protestant Views of Vodou, and the Future of Post-Earthquake Haiti
Bertin Louis, Jr., Ph.D., Dept of Anthropology, UTK

ANTH 357/450

Week 16
Nov 29 (M)

LIB 253
(10:10 am)

ANTH 550: Discussion & Wrap-up

ANTH 550

Nov 30 (Tu)

MM 63
(3:40 pm)

ANTH 357/450: Discussion & Wrap-Up

ANTH 357/450

Any member of the University community or interested public is welcome to attend any lecture in this series.
** Students registered for any of the three classes are welcome to attend any lecture in this series.
** Lectures presented by visiting lecturers are highlighted in grey.