Anthropological Genomics

Catalog description

The goal of the course is to explore how genes can inform us about human history, ancestry and evolution while allowing students the option to participate by collecting genetic data from their own genome. Understanding how genetic data can be combined with independent information to become a powerful and fascinating tool for uncovering events in human history, reconstructing human ancestry, and understanding human evolution will be the focus of the course. The genetic data collected from students who volunteer (the normal fee will be waived) will also personalize the concepts in genetics, human history, anthropology, ethics, bioinformatics, quantitative reasoning and information literacy. Typically, there are two exams and weekly hands-on in class assignments