Dr. Hannes Schroeder to lead new HERA research project

Molecular Me. How does DNA research affect historically constructed notions of identity and nationhood? Researchers on the CITIGEN project try to find the answer. Image credit: Lonely.

Dr. Schroeder will lead a team of academics from Iceland, Ireland, and the UK to investigate the uses of genomic data in the study of human population histories. The project entitled ‘Identity, citizenship, and nationhood in the post-genome era’ (CITIGEN) encourages humanities and natural sciences researchers to collaborate to develop integrated approaches to understand the past.

Speaking about the project, Dr. Schroeder said:

- The funding from HERA and the European Commission provides a wonderful opportunity to bring humanities voices to the debate on how genomic data are being used to shape public understandings of the past. These perspectives are critical for contextualizing and qualifying the fascinating new insights provided by geneticists.

Transnational research

The HERA partnership consists of 24 European research councils across Europe, who are committed to the continued growth and development of collaborative and transnational humanities research across Europe. The new HERA Joint Research Programme ‘Uses of the Past’ supports 18 transnational research projects for a duration of 3 years (2016-2019).

The theme ‘Uses of the Past’ recognises that in order to understand the pressing societal questions of identity, integration, political legitimacy, creativity and cultural dynamics across Europe we need to understand how societies use and reflect upon the past.
 
For more information on the HERA programme including the projects funded under the previous HERA joint research programmes, please visit the HERA website.