CURRICULUM VITAE

Jennifer A. (Kedzie) Raff

Department of Anthropology

University of Kansas

 

Education

2008    Ph.D., Anthropology and Genetics (dual degree), Indiana University,

Bloomington, IN. Dissertation: An Ancient DNA Perspective on the Prehistory of the Lower

Illinois Valley

2008    M.A., Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

2001    B.A., Biology and Anthropology (double major): Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Professional Positions

2015-present   Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas.

2013-2015       Research Fellow: Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin

2011-2013       Postdoctoral Fellow: Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Molecular Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University at Chicago

2008-2011       Postdoctoral Associate: Department of Anthropology, University of Utah at Salt Lake City

2002-2008       Graduate Researcher: Departments of Biology and Anthropology, Indiana University at Bloomington

2001-2002       Research Assistant: Department of Biology, Indiana University at Bloomington

1997-2001       Undergraduate Research Assistant: Department of Biology, Indiana University at Bloomington

 

Professional Affiliations

American Association for the Advancement of Science

American Association of Physical Anthropology

American Society of Human Genetics

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution

American Association of Anthropological Genetics

American Anthropological Association

 

Professional Service Positions

Current:    Vice-President, American Association of Anthropological Genetics

 

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

Claw KG, Anderson MZ, Begay RL, Tsosie KS, Garrison NA and the SING Consortium. (2018). A framework for enhancing ethical genomics research with Indigenous communities. Nature Communications 9: 2957. (Member of SING Consortium).

Bardill J, Bader AC, Garrison NA, Bolnick DA, Raff JA, Walker A, Malhi RS, and the SING Consortium. (2018). Advancing the Ethics of Paleogenomics: Shifting the Status Quo on Community Consultation. Science 360 (6387): 384-385

Raff J. (2017). Genetics: Ancient DNA clarifies population histories of the northeastern margin of North America. Current Biology 27, R1108-R1129.

Bolnick DA, Raff JA, Springs LC, Reynolds AW, Miro-Herrans AT. (2016). Native American genomics and population histories. Annual Review of Anthropology 45:319-340

Tackney JC, Potter BA, Raff JA, Powers M, Watkins WS, Warner D, ­­Reuther JD, Irish JD, O’Rourke DH. (2015). Two contemporaneous mitogenomes from Terminal Pleistocene burials in Eastern Beringia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112 (45): 13833–13838, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1511903112

 Raff JA and Bolnick DA. (2015). Does mitochondrial haplogroup X indicate ancient trans-Atlantic migration to the Americas? A critical re-evaluation. PaleoAmerica. 1(4): 297-304 (Open Access).

 Raff JA. (2015). Anthropological genetics and social media outreach. American Anthropologist 117 (4): 744-749

Raff JA, Rzhetskaya M, Tackney J, Hayes MG. (2015). Mitochondrial diversity of Inupiat people from the Alaskan North Slope provides evidence for the origins of the Paleo- and Neo-Eskimo Peoples. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 157 (4):603-614

Reynolds, A.W.*, Raff, J.A.*, Cook, D.C., Kaestle, F.A., and Bolnick, D.A. 2015. Ancient DNA from the Schild site in Illinois: Implications for the Mississippian transition in the Lower Illinois River Valley. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 156 (3):434-448 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22668 *Co-first authors

Li, J., Quinque, D., Li, M., Horz, H., Rzhetskaya, M.R, Raff, J., Hayes, M.G., and Stoneking, M. (2014). Comparative analysis of the human saliva microbiome from different climate zones: Alaska, Germany, and Africa. PLOS Computational  Biology. doi:10.1186/s12866-014-0316-1

Raff J.A. and Bolnick D.A. (2014) Genetic roots of the first Americans. Nature 506:162-163.

Raff, J.A., Bolnick, D.A., Tackney, J.C., and O’Rourke, D.H. (2011) Ancient DNA perspectives on American colonization and population history. American Journal of Physical Anthropology* 146:503-514.

*One of the five most accessed articles in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 2011.

Raff, J.A., Tackney, J.C., and O’Rourke, D.H. (2010) South from Alaska: A pilot aDNA study of genetic history on the Alaskan Peninsula and Eastern Aleutians. Human Biology 82(5-6): 677-693.

O’Rourke, D.H., and Raff, J.A. (2010) The final frontier: Genetic perspectives on American colonization. Current Biology 20:R202-R207.

Raff, J.A., Cook, D.C., and Kaestle, F.A. (2006) Tuberculosis in the New World: a study of ribs from the Schild Mississippian population, West-Central Illinois. Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 101(Suppl. II): 25-27. Rio de Janeiro.

Lee, S., Carlson, T., Christian, N., Lea, K., Kedzie, J., Reilly, J.P., Bonner, J.J. (2000). The yeast heat shock transcription factor changes conformation in response to   superoxide and temperature. Molecular Biology of the Cell 11:1753-1764.

Books and books under contract

Raff JA. (In progress) Origins: A genetic history of the Western Hemisphere. Under contract to Twelve Books. Completion deadline: October 31, 2019.

Raff, JA. (2016). Handbook on Science Literacy. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. ISBN 9781524907358

Invited Book Chapters

Raff JA. (Forthcoming). Ancient DNA and Bioarchaeology. In Companion to Anthropological Genetics, Dennis O’Rourke, Editor. Wiley-Blackwell.

Tackney, J.C., Coltrain, J.B., Raff JA, and O’Rourke, D.H. (2016) Ancient DNA and stable isotopes: Windows on Arctic prehistory. In: Oxford Handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic, Max Friesen and Owen Mason, Editors. Oxford University Press.

Meier, R. J. and Raff, J.A. (2010) Genetics in Human Biology. In: Human Evolutionary Biology, Michael P. Muehinbein, Editor. Cambridge University Press.

Powell, M.L., Cook, D.C., Langley, M.M., Spencer, S.D., Raff, J.A., and Kaestle, F.A.(2012) The ‘African Queen’, a Portuguese mystery. In: The Bioarchaeology of Individuals: Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Past: Local, Regional, and Global,Ann Lucy Stodder and Ann M. Palkovich, Editors. University Press of Florida.

Book Reviews

Raff, JA. May 31, 2018. In an Age of Gene Editing and Surrogacy, What Does Heredity Mean? Review of Carl Zimmer’s She Has Her Mothers Laugh. The New York Times Book Review.

Raff, JA. 2014. Review of Nicholas Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance. Human Biology Volume 86(3).

Public scholarship

The Guardian

Key articles

• Have we really found Amelia Earhart’s bones? March 16, 2018.
• Rejecting the Solutrean hypothesis: the first peoples in the Americas were not from Europe. February 21, 2018.
• What the ancient DNA discovery tells us about Native American ancestry. January 3, 2018.
• No ‘lost tribes’ or aliens: what ancient DNA reveals about American prehistory. November 15, 2017
• The secret about human evolution found in spit. September 5, 2017
• If Mary Beard is right, what’s happened to the DNA of Africans from Roman Britain?August 9, 2017
• Did human women contribute to Neanderthal genomes over 200,000 years ago? July 18, 2017
• Homo naledi genome: Will we ever find this elusive key to human evolution? May 23, 2017
• Food for thought: reconstructing the diet of Napoleon’s Grand Army. April 18, 2017
• Ancient DNA reveals genetic legacy of pandemics in the Americas. December 19, 2016

The London School of Economics and Political Science Impact Blog

• How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientists. May 9, 2016

Evolution Institute Social Evolution Forum

Key Articles

• How admixture with Neanderthals may have affected human populations. November 3, 2015.
• And then there were three: New Denisovan genomes tell us more about the evolution of Archaic hominins. November 24, 2015
• Why there still are monkeys: Lessons learned from teaching evolution in Kansas. December 30, 2015

Huffington Post

Key Articles

• Addressing a diversity problem in human genetics. September16, 2014.
• How to read and understand a scientific article. A step-by-step guide for non-scientists. June 18, 2014.
• Nicholas Wade and race: building a scientific façade. May 27, 2014.
• Dear parents, you are being lied to. April 8, 2014.

 

Published encyclopedia articles

Raff JA (2018) Sewall Wright. The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology. Wenda Trevathan, Editor. Wiley Blackwell Press.

Raff JA (2018) Cloning. The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology. Wenda Trevathan, Editor. Wiley Blackwell Press.

 

GRANTS

2018               A pilot DNA study of the ancestors of the Wichita. KU Research-Go. ($14,500)

2016              Testing alternative models of Native American migration history with ancient DNA ($4,900). KU Center for Migration Research Institute for Policy and Social Research 2016 Seed Grant Program.

2015                Identifying Genomic Signatures of Evolutionary and Cultural Change in Native Americans ($285,845). National Science Foundation. Co-PI with Deborah Bolnick.

2014-2015       Ancient DNA Analysis of the Prehistory of the Lower Pecos Region of Texas ($27,600 Direct Costs), Rock Art Foundation. Co-PI (PI: Deborah Bolnick).

2014-2015       Uncovering the Genetic Legacy of Fueguians and Patagonians through Modern and Ancient DNA Analyses ($10,000 Direct Costs). National Geographic Genographic Project. Sub-contract (PIs: Marta Durruty and Miguel Vilar).

2004, 2006      The evolution of tuberculosis in prehistoric North America ($80,000), National Science Foundation IGERT Doctoral Fellowship.

2005                The evolution of tuberculosis in prehistoric North America ($3,000), Skomp Research Feasibility Grant.

2004                Prehistoric population movements and disease in ancient North America ($3,000), Skomp Research Feasibility Grant.

2002                Women in Science Program Graduate Fellowship ($18,000).

 

INVITED LECTURES

 

2018                Kavli Conversation on Science Communication. Invited panel discussion with Carl Zimmer at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. New York City. October 9^th, 2018.

2018                “A different way: Perspectives on human genetic research.” Invited presentation to curators at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian, Washington D.C. September 18, 2018.

2018                “What genetics tells us about the peopling of the Americas”. Pre-Columbian Society symposium on “Peopling of the Americas”. Washington D.C. September 15, 2018.

2017                “Vaccines and society” Presentation to Kansas Health Institute, Topeka KS.

2017                NPR Science Friday Live. September 10. Wichita KS.

2016                “The increasing complexity of the final frontier: What genetics tells us about the initial peopling of the Americas.” September 6. Evolution, Ecology and Behavior seminar, Lawrence KS.

2016                “The history of genetics.” NASA ISS Science Friday presentation. March 25. Houston, TX.

2016                “A lot of smoke, but no fire: A history of the antivaccine movement.” KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum Science on Tap presentation. Feb 16. Lawrence, KS.

2015                “A genetic perspective on the prehistory of the Americas.” University of Missouri, Columbus.

2014                “What we currently know (and don’t know) from genetic data about the peopling of the Americas and North American Arctic.” Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin.

2014                “Ancient DNA research methods and ethics”. Summer Internship for Native Americans in Genomics, University of Texas at Austin.

2014                “Ancient molecules and migrations: Understanding the origins of the earliest Americans.” The Summer Science Program, New Mexico Institute of Technology.

2013                “Anthropological genetic investigations into the final frontier: Human colonization of the North American Arctic.” Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

2013                “The peopling of the Americas.” Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

2012                “Blending genomics and anthropology to understand human prehistory.” Scholarship and Discovery Conversation Series. Sponsored by the School of Health Professions, Mizzou Advantage, and the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.

2011                “Women in prehistoric North America.” Women in Science Day Featured Lecture. Sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University South Bend.

 

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS (last five years; previous years’ titles available on request)

*International conferences

 

2018                Balentine CM, Reynolds AW, Miró-Herrans A, Mata-Míguez J, Rzhetskaya M, Raff JA, Hayes MG, Bolnick D. Investigating region-specific natural selection and admixture-associated selection in the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. 87^th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Austin TX.

2018                Raff JA, Reynolds AW, Turpin S, Rohland N, Reich D, Bolnick DA. Paleogenomic investigations of the ancient inhabitants of the Lower Pecos region of Texas and Northern Mexico. 87^th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Austin TX.

2018                Raff JA, Reynolds AW, Turpin S, Rohland N, Reich D, Bolnick DA. Paleogenomic investigations of the ancient inhabitants of the Lower Pecos region of Texas and Northern Mexico. Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Satellite meeting on Modern Methods for the Study of Ancient DNA. Providence, RI.

2017                Raff JA. Communicating early career research: The importance of outreach. Invited Poster in Symposium: Training the Next Generation of Biological Anthropologists. 86^th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, New Orleans LA.

2017                Smith RWA, Raff JA. Little Green Men, Huge Angry People, and Across the Water Visits: Very Wrong Things People Say about Old Times in the New World. Invited Podium Symposium. Up Goer Five PhysAnth Edition: Communicate Your Science Using English’s Ten Hundred Most Common Words. 86^th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, New Orleans LA.

2017                Raff, Jennifer A, Justin Tackney, Margarita Rzhetskaya, M. Geoffrey Hayes, and Dennis H. O’Rourke. “New perspectives on Arctic prehistory from ancient and contemporary genetics.” 44th Annual Meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association, Fairbanks AK. March 2017.

2016                Raff JA, Mata-Miguez J, Ku, CR, Bolnick DA. Ancient DNA analysis of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Lower Pecos Region of Texas and Northern Mexico. 85^th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Atlanta GA. April 16.

2015                Bolnick D and Raff JA. Imposing Colonial Modernity on the Past: Narratives of Identity and Race in Ancient DNA Research. Invited paper In Executive Session “Identity, Belonging, and the Biopolitics of DNA in Colonial Modernity”. American Anthropological Association Annual meeting. November 18-22, 2015.

2015                Raff JA, Miro-Herrans A, Jensen A, Rzhetskaya M, Armstrong L, Hayes MG, Bolnick D. Reconstructing the effects of European contact on North Slope Iñupiat Populations through genetic, archaeological, and ethnohistoric research. Invited Poster Symposium: Thinking anthropologically about genetics. Chair: Bridget FB. Algee-Hewitt Co-Organizer: Amy Goldberg. 84^th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, St. Louis, Missouri. March 25- 28^th.

2015                Hayes, M., Tackney, J, Raff, J, O’Rourke D.H. Current developments in anthropological genetics of the North American Arctic. Multi-generational perspectives on human biology and anthropological genetics: A Symposium in honor of Michael H. Crawford. Invited HBA-AAPA Poster Symposium. Chair: William R. Leonard. 84^th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, St. Louis, Missouri. March 25-28^th.

2015                Panelist, AAPA/AAAG Education workshop on communication and outreach issues in anthropology. 84^th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, St. Louis, Missouri. March 25-28^th.

2014                Raff, J.A., and Bolnick, D. Ancient DNA analysis of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Lower Pecos region of Texas. Texas Archaeological Society Annual Meeting, October 2014.

*2014              Raff, J.A., Rzhetskaya, M.R, and Hayes, M.G. Understanding the colonization of the North American Arctic: Phylogenetic analysis of Y chromosome lineages from Iñupiat populations of the Alaskan North Slope. 83^rd annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. April 9-12, 2014.

2013                Raff, J.A., Rzhetskaya, M.R., and Hayes, M.G. Proposed revisions to human mitochondrial haplogroup phylogenies A2 and D4 based on whole mitochondrial genome sequencing of Alaskan Iñupiat populations. Poster presented at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. July 9-11.

2013                Torosin N.S., Raff, J.A., and Hayes, M.G. A genetic test for the effect of the Toba volcanic eruption on worldwide population sizes in animal species. Poster presented at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. July 9-11.

2013                Raff, J.A., Rzhetskaya, M.R., and Hayes, M.G. Understanding the colonization of the North American Arctic: The results of whole mitochondrial genome sequencing of Iñupiat populations of the Alaskan North Slope. Paper presented at 82^nd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Knoxville, TN. April 9-13.

2013                Raff, J.A., Rzhetskaya, M.R., and Hayes, M.G. Patterns of genetic diversity and shared mitochondrial and Y-chromosome lineages among Iñupiat communities of the Alaskan North Slope. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Alaska Anthropological Association. Anchorage, AK. March 13-16.

 

COURSES TAUGHT

 

Undergraduate

Controversies on the Living and the Dead

Laboratory/Field Work in Human Biology

Fundamentals of Physical Anthropology.

Information Literacy for Biologists

Molecular Biology

Genetics

Cell biology

 

Graduate

Critical Analysis of Scientific Literature

Laboratory Methods in Physical Anthropology

Grant Writing

 

2014, 2016      Faculty, Summer Internship for Indigenous Peoples in Genomics (SING)

 

REFEREE FOR JOURNALS

 

bioRxiv affiliate

Nature, PNAS, PaleoAmerica, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, American

Journal of Human Biology, Genome Research, BMC Evolutionary Biology, Cellular and

Molecular Life Sciences, International Journal of Paleopathology.