Research Areas

Kinship; genetics; race; transnationalism; scientific knowledge production; African Diaspora; Africa; Cameroon; race; temporality; narrativization

My research examines the transnational circulation of genetic ancestry testing information by African-Americans, particularly between (but not exclusive to) the United States and Cameroon. I am interested in the processes by which identities and histories are being narrativized and materialized by varying groups in different geographic spaces simultaneously, and how this refracts the way we conceptualize race, genetics, and the authority of scientific knowledge production in the contemporary moment. I am also interested in exploring creative opportunities to bring anthropology (and academic discourse, more generally) to the public through spoken word poetry. My research has currently received support through the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2011) and the UC Berkeley Center for African Studies' Rocca Pre-Dissertation Fellowship (2013).