Jennifer Raff, PhD, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas will give the  IGB-HRI Distinguished Public Lecture in Genomics "Linking Life Sciences and Humanities" at 4:00 p.m. on October 28th at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center. 

Raff is an award-winning author whose research focuses on understanding human history through the lens of genetics. She works with Indigenous communities and tribes across North America who wish to use ancient and contemporary DNA as a tool for investigating questions of recent and more distant histories.

Her first book, “Origin: A genetic history of the Americas” was a critical success, described as “an authoritative tale from the trenches told by a fearless scientist,” a “necessary and elegant text,” and by The New York Times as “the book anyone interested in the peopling of the Americas must read.” Origin, which was a New York Times bestseller for two weeks, received multiple awards including the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science (2023).

Raff has also written numerous articles on genetics, history, and human variation for the general public, emphasizing not only the translation of complicated scientific concepts into accessible language, but also the ethics and complicated history of research on these subjects. She was described by the New York Times as “at the forefront of a culture change in our science.”

Full event details here. This event is co-sponsored by the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and the Humanities Research Institute