Are geneticists historians? How does archaeology and history deal with the new data being generated in the lab? Does biomolecular investigation open up a new type of humanities scholarship?
Scientific approaches are challenging what we know, and how we know, about the past.
Join us for an informal networking lunch followed by a research-intensive discussion about the present and the future of genetics humanities, including thoughts about Ancient DNA, gene-editing/ CRISPR, and new interdisciplinary approaches. The workshop seeks to understand new networks of scholarship and to think about the nature of future data-driven collaborations.
Speakers:
Jerome De Groot
Jerome de Groot is a Professor of Literature and Culture at The University of Manchester. His main areas of interest include Public History, the Historical Novel and Genetic History. He is the author a number of historical books including Remaking History (Routledge, 2015) and Consuming History (Routledge, 2008/16). His most recent book, Double Helix History (2023), looks at the ways that history and genetics have been combined since 2000.
Konstantina Drosou
Konstantina Drosou is Programme Director and Lecturer in the MSc Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester. She specialises in Evolutionary Genomics and her research interests involve investigation of origins, lifestyle and evolution of disease using modern discovery omics from minimally invasive biopsies.
Michael Buckley
Michael Buckley is a Reader and Head of the Ancient Biomolecules Laboratories at The University of Manchester. His interests revolve around the use of ancient proteins and DNA for the study of human history, particularly in their application to human impacts on biodiversity in the past through to the present as well as how ancient proteins can be used to tell us about the evolution of ancient animal life on Earth.
Melanie Giles
Melanie Giles is a Professor in European Prehistory at The University of Manchester. Her research interests include: Iron Age histories of disease, violence, death and burial; funerary archaeology; the environmental, ritual and social importance of 'bog bodies'; art, technology and power (particularly through the lens of Celtic art and martial culture); antiquarian studies; and working class communities - labour, leisure and life-histories.
Places are free and can be booked here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/research-cafe-manchesters-dna-tickets-773059611107?aff=oddtdtcreator
