The Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference is tackling social and scientific questions to address pressing problems of race and racism.
The Duke Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference (GRID) is a global endeavor that brings together a broad range of collaborators and partners in research, education, and engagement efforts to enable systemic and sustainable solutions to pressing problems of race and racism. The work of the center also includes other related population identifiers such as ethnicity, ancestry, and geographic and national classifications.
Recent advances in genomic technology have prompted new and resurrected age-old conversations and debates about the meanings, applications, and implications of race in the human species. Although in the late 20th century the fields of genetics and genomics confirmed that our species is not divided into biological races, some scientific and biomedical research continues to suggest otherwise.
False notions about natural and fixed biological differences between the so-called races underlie the insertion of race into the social, political, and legal architectures of the United States (US) and other countries, and reproduce and maintain social hierarchies. Consequently, scholarly tensions, popular confusion, and social inequities persist. This predicament gives rise to the following questions:
How can we develop more critical and constructive discourses about the relationships between race and genetics?
What shared goals, frameworks, and standards are needed to produce revolutionary changes in the processes, outputs, and outcomes related to the use of race?
What barriers need to be overcome and what facilitators need to be leveraged to successfully integrate current and emerging knowledge about human variation into local, national, and global societies?
Transform ideas, uses, and impacts of race in research, healthcare, and society.
Develop and apply practical tools and dynamic strategies to understand and address social, ethical, and biological dimensions of race concepts in humans, and accelerate progressive changes in the conduct of scientific and scholarly research, the delivery of healthcare, and the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and societies.
