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

DNA技术的进步极大地提高了从武装冲突中识别人类遗骸的能力。在为家庭创造发现亲属遗骸的机会时，这些技术创造了条件，可能会形成或重新定义新形式的社会关系和亲属关系。DNA鉴定项目，特别是国家资助的项目，在挑选遗体进行重新鉴定和分析时，也受到纳入和排除标准的限制。这项博士论文研究调查战争死难者的科学鉴定是否以及以何种方式将重塑亲属关系、记忆和归属感。更具体地说，这项研究考察了科学识别死者的文化过程及其对活人的记忆、身份和社会关系的影响。研究结果将通过公共媒体渠道以专栏形式向广大公众传播，并通过非学术报告向参与研究的主要利益攸关方传播。该项目对研究生进行数据收集和分析的科学方法方面的培训，并扩大历史上代表性不足的群体对科学知识生产的参与。通过与法医科学家和战争死难者家属进行的人种学研究，研究人员将分析鉴定过程中涉及的社会技术过程，以及科学家和家属关于冲突和国家认同的(相互竞争的)价值观、感知和记忆。研究人员将参加法医实验室的日常活动，并在战争死难者家属家中观察纪念仪式和物品。数据将通过参与者观察、访谈、口述历史和档案研究来收集。这些发现将揭示战争死难者DNA鉴定项目是否以及以何种方式将恢复被战争和冲突破坏的某些类型的祖先关系，重塑家庭和国家之间的关系，以及重建或和解过去的政治分歧。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.