OCTOBER 2014: Sarah Abel in Birmingham
Sarah Abel speaking at “Black Beneath the Skin,” at a Community Perspectives event in Birmingham, UK
EUROTAST fellow Sarah Abel was invited to give a talk about her work on ancestry genetics testing and race at a Community Perspectives event in Birmingham. Her lecture was well-received and she fielded incisive questions from the audience about politics, race, and genetics. From her discussion of the event:
The idea was to present some themes that intersect with my research, namely genetics, skin colour, and the idea of ‘race’, using Anthony Fabian’s 2008 film Skin as a springboard for discussion. The Q&A session was lively, with questions ranging from the political (“what do you think of the use of recent genetic research to find out if the Egyptian pharaohs were black or white?”) to the philosophical (“what is the societal value of a genetic ‘ancestry’ certificate?”) to the perplexed (“if you are given a ‘Jewish’ percentage on a genetic ‘ancestry’ test, does that mean Jews are a ‘race’?”).
Read more about Sarah’s thoughts on the event at her blog, Anthropology While White.
Categorized: EUROTAST Reporting
