Emma Kowal will soon start work on a new project funded by the Australian Research Council in 2015.

Reconciling Biological and Social Indigeneity in the Genomic Era.

Led by Associate Professor Emma Kowal with Professor Yin Paradies and ANU’s Associate Professor Cressida Fforde, this team will develop and test a biosocial model of Indigeneity that will enhance existing knowledge of Indigenous identification as a critical factor in monitoring and improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people. Advances in genomics will have profound impacts on contemporary identities, including Indigeneity. A focus on social processes since the 1970s has left scholarship on Indigenous identity ill-equipped to grapple with the consequences of the genomic era. Drawing on multidisciplinary expertise, Indigenous and non-Indigenous investigators will examine biological and social influences on Indigeneity in narratives of self representation and in two fields currently being transformed by genomics: ancestry testing and repatriation.