Kimberly TallBear

Assistant Professor
PhD  History of Consciousness    University of California, Santa Cruz, 2005
MCP   Urban Studies and Planning (Environmental Policy/Planning)    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994

137 Mulford Hall (mailing address)
116 Giannini Hall (physical address)
Berkeley, California 94720-3114
kimberly.tallbear@berkeley.edu
office: 510-643-1966   lab: 510-643-1966   fax:  510-666-3458

Web site         Recent publications     

My research and teaching cross the fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS), feminist science studies, anthropology of science, cultural studies, and Native American Studies (NAS). I critically integrate frameworks and methods from these disciplines as I examine the politics of scientific knowledge production and its impacts on Native Americans and other peoples who historically suffer uneven power relations in scientific research. I focus on the cultures and politics of genomic, forensic, and environmental science and technology as they intersect with U.S. American conceptions of race and nation. I am also interested in the strategies and narratives that peoples employ as they attempt to govern scientific knowledge production. By “governance” I refer not only to regulation of or resistance to research but also the integration of community development and capacity building into scientific research. My work can inform policies designed to increase the regulatory, economic, educational, and human resource capacity of Native American tribes and other groups.

I am affiliated with the The Science, Technology, and Society Center.

I focus on contemporary practitioners and practices of anthropological genetics on Native American and other indigenous populations. “Anthropological genetics” refers to the application of genetic techniques to traditional anthropological questions, including the study of ancient human migrations and the biological and cultural relationships between human populations. I am interested in innovations to official bioethical standards (e.g. consent, confidentiality, and ownership). I am especially interested in changing notions of consent and ethics in the management of biological samples. And I am interested in questions of power and politics that are not captured by bioethical frameworks and official mechanisms for regulating research (e.g. Institutional Review Boards and tribal research codes). How are genetic research questions, technical definitions, and data interpretation informed by historical and contextual ideas of race, purity, and origins? How do such ideas help build a commercial market for genetic “tests” for ancestry and identity? How do they inform notions of Native American identity in both the living and the dead? What are the implications for tribal citizenship and claims to human remains? As part of this project, I am co-principal investigator with Jenny Reardon (Sociology, UC-Santa Cruz) and Rebecca Tsosie (College of Law, Arizona State University) on a National Science Foundation-funded workshop, Genomics, Governance, and Indigenous Peoples.

In studying Native American governance of genetics research, I have become interested in Native American scientists and their roles in knowledge production and governance. What kinds of innovative knowledge production are Native American scientists engaged in? How do they manage competing knowledge systems, cultural allegiances, and sets of privileges? Some people regard “scientific” knowledge and “indigenous” knowledge as discreet; others conflate them, as in the assumption that “indigenous” knowledge production has always been “scientific.” I want to explore what happens when Native American scientists disrupt such assumptions. I am also interested in what role gender plays in terms of support at home and access to educational and career opportunities in science. How does gender affect the credibility of a Native American scientist at home and “out in the world”? How does it affect access to tribal/cultural knowledge, and how do such differences—if they exist—influence the reckoning of Native American scientists with competing knowledge systems? This project examines Native scientists—and their interactions with non-Native scientists—in fields where Native American scientists are growing in number. These include archaeology and historic preservation work and various forms of environmental science. Research may expand to include comparative inquiry with indigenous peoples and other cultural groups within and without the U.S.

BOOK

Howe, Craig and Kimberly TallBear, eds. This Stretch of the River: Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Responses to the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Bicentennial. Sioux Falls, SD: Oak Lake Writers Society & Pine Hill Press, 2006.



ACADEMIC ARTICLES

TallBear, Kimberly. "Native-American-DNA.coms: In Search of Native American Race and Tribe." In Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age. Barbara Koenig, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, and Sarah Richardson, eds. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008: 235-252.

TallBear, Kimberly. "Narratives of Race and Indigeneity in the Genographic Project," Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 35(3) (Fall 2007): 412-424.

TallBear, Kimberly. "DNA, Blood and Racializing the Tribe." In ‘Mixed Race’ Studies: A Reader. Jayne O. Ifekwunige, ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. First published in Wicazo Sá Review 18(1) (2003): 81-107.



REVIEWS AND COMMENTARY

“DNA and Native American Identity.” In indivisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas. Gabrielle Tayac, ed. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 2009: 69-75.

TallBear, Kimberly. "Commentary" (on Decoding Implications of the Genographic Project for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage). International Journal of Cultural Property 16 (2009): 189-192.

Lee, S. S-J., D. Bolnick, T. Duster, P. Ossorio, and K. TallBear. The Illusive Gold Standard in Genetic Ancestry Testing. Science 325 (5946) (July 3, 2009): 38-39.

Bolnick, D. A., D. Fullwiley, T. Duster, R.S. Cooper, J.H. Fujimura, J. Kahn, J. Kaufman, J. Marks, A. Morning, A. Nelson, P. Ossorio, J. Reardon, S.M. Reverby, and K. TallBear. "The Science and Business of Genetic Ancestry," Science 318 (5849) (October 19, 2007): 399-400.

TallBear, Kimberly. "Exceptionalism Narrative Doesn't Jive." Commentary on Barack Obama and American Exceptionalism. Indian Country Today, September 12, 2008.

TallBear, Kimberly and Deborah Bolnick. "Native American DNA Tests: What are the Risks to Tribes?" The Native Voice, December 3-7, 2004.

TallBear, Kimberly. "Can DNA Determine Who is an Indian?" Indian Country Today, December 3, 2003.

TallBear, Kimberly. "Review Essay. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life," Wicazo Sá Review 17(1) (2002): 234-242.