"The Structure of Human Genetic Diversity: More Evolution and Less Race," presented by Keith Hunley of the University of New Mexico for the Morrison Institute Winter Colloquium

Event Details:

In the past decade, geneticists have identified patterns of human population genetic structure and natural selection that non-specialists interpret as evidence for the existence of biological races. This interpretation stands in sharp contrast to the view held by many anthropologists that human variation is continuously distributed and that race is purely a social construct. In this talk, Professor Hunley demonstrates that population genetic structure and regional signals of selection are inconsistent with conventional racial taxonomies, and that gene flow has been eroding this structure since it formed.

Keith Hunley is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. He received a undergraduate degree in biology from Purdue University in 1980 and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Michigan in 2002. From 2002-2004, he served as a faculty research fellow in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan. He has been at UNM since 2004. His research interests include human evolution, Native American and Oceanian prehistory, and gene-language coevolution.

Admission Info

Free and open to the public.