Diversity and Inclusion

Trevor W. Purcell Memorial Lecture Series

The Trevor W. Purcell Memorial Lecture Series honors the legacy of the anthropologist Trevor W. Purcell (1945-2007), former chair of the Department of Africana Studies and member of the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. The series invites scholars working in areas of Dr. Purcell’s research interests to speak to faculty, students, and staff at USF. These interests included the anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean, indigenous knowledge, development studies, public anthropology, applied anthropology, and diversity and inclusion.

2024 Lecture - Dr. Maria A. Nieves Colón: 

"Using ancient DNA to revisit the historical record of Latin [MANC1] America and the Caribbean"

Synopsis

Dr. Nieves Colón's research lab.

Ancient DNA (aDNA) directly queries the genetic diversity of ancient and historic human populations. Such data can be used to investigate the experiences of peoples who have been historically marginalized or excluded from the written documentary record. As such, aDNA is especially relevant for understanding the history of the Americas, a region where settler colonial perspectives are overrepresented in the written historical record; often serving as the hegemonic frameworks from which past events are reconstructed and understood.

In this talk, I will present ongoing pilot research which combines aDNA and bioarchaeological approaches to investigate the African Diaspora to Latin America, by reconstructing the lives of enslaved laborers buried in an 18-19th century sugar plantation in coastal Peru (n=30). This community-engaged research project seeks to provide a new perspective towards histories of African captivity and diaspora in Latin America by centering the experiences of African and African-descendant communities in narratives of Peruvian history, heritage, and identity.

Overall, this presentation will stress how integrative aDNA research can problematize our understanding of history by constructing more inclusive narratives of the Latin American experience.

Meet the Speaker

Maria A. Nieves Colón is a molecular anthropologist whose research focuses on the use of genomics and ancient DNA to reconstruct human history and evolution. Currently, she is the director of the UMN Anthropological Genetics Laboratory where along with her students, she is using ancient DNA to reconstruct the histories of ancient and historic peoples living in Latin America and the Caribbean. She is originally from Puerto Rico.
(Pronouns: she/her/hers)