Doctoral Dissertation Research: Science, Kinship, and Memory through DNA Identification

Advances in DNA technologies have vastly improved the capacity to identify human remains from armed conflicts. In creating opportunities for families to discover the remains of their relatives, these technologies have established conditions where new forms of social relationships and kinship relations might be forged or redefined. DNA identification projects, especially state-funded ones, are also circumscribed by inclusion and exclusion criteria in the selection of remains for reidentification and analysis. This doctoral dissertation research investigates whether, and in what ways, the scientific identification of war dead will reshape kinship, memory, and belonging. More particularly, this research examines the cultural processes embedded in the scientific identification of the dead and its impacts on memory, identity, and social relations of the living. The findings will be disseminated as op-eds to the broader public through public media channels as well as non-academic reports to the main stakeholders involved in the study. The project trains a graduate student in scientific methods of data collection and analysis and broaden the participation of historically underrepresented groups in the production of scientific knowledge. Through an ethnographic study with forensic scientists and family members of war dead, the researchers will analyze the sociotechnical processes involved in the identification as well as the (competing) values, perceptions, and memory of both the scientists and the families regarding conflict and national identity. The researchers will participate in the daily activities at the forensic laboratory and observe commemoration rituals and objects at the homes of family members of war dead. Data will be collected using participant observation, interviews, oral histories, and archival research. The findings will shed light on whether, and in what ways, the DNA identification project of war dead will restore some kinds of ancestral relations disrupted by wars and conflicts, reshape the relationship between families and the nation as well as reconstruct or reconcile past political divisions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.