Race, genomics and mestizaje (mixture) in Latin America: a comparative approach
The project is a comparative analysis of how ideas of race and ethnicity interact with genomic research in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, where geneticists are mapping local population genomes, with the objective of combating diseases, and tracing “racial” ancestries. These countries have high levels of genetic “admixture” and interest geneticists pursuing the genetic components of disorders. Scientists in these countries often link their findings explicitly to questions of national identity, racial-ethnic difference, racism and multiculturalism, provoking media attention and public debate. All three countries have a history and a national identity based on mestizaje (racial-cultural mixture between Europeans, Africans and indigenous Americans), but the idea of mixture is slightly different in each case; the project will explore how the knowledge produced about genetics reinforces or challenges particular national versions of the ideology of mestizaje.
The project has two phases.
Phase 1, funded by the ESRC, began in January 2010 and finished in July 2011. It focused on ethnographic work in laboratories and interviews with scientists, exploring how racial, ethnic and national categories enter these scientific endeavours, whether the categories are reproduced and/or reformulated, and what are the ethical and normative implications of this research. Using discourse analysis, it also explored in a pilot fashion how information that scientists disseminate enters the public domain through the media.
Phase 2, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and starting in July 2011, has the title "Public engagement with genomic research and race in Latin America" and builds on the first phase, with a greater emphasis on how scientific knowledge about population genomics circulates through scientific and non-scientific public spheres and how diverse publics engage with this knowledge.
This project is funded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) with grant RES-062-23-1914, and by the Leverhulme Trust with grant RPG-044.