Colliding Categories: Haplotypes, Race & Ethnicity

This project explored the impending collision between biological and regulatory classifications of population subgroups in American society. Researchers focused on the interaction between biological categories emerging from the effort to create a haplotype map of the human genome and preexisting categories specifying race and ethnicity embodied in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget's Directive 15, which governs collection of data by all federal agencies and in federally funded research.

This project involved an eminent national group of scholars including:

• Donna Arnett, PhD (University of Minnesota)
• Rose Brewer, PhD (University of Minnesota)
• Colin Campbell, PhD (University of Minnesota)
• Troy Duster PhD, (New York University and University of California, Berkeley)
• Kim Fortun, PhD (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
• Phyllis Griffin Epps, JD (University of Houston)
• Evelynn Hammonds, PhD (Harvard University)
• Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH (University of Minnesota)
• Vivek Kapur, PhD (University of Minnesota)
• Jonathan Marks, PhD (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)
• Michael Omi, PhD (University of California, Berkeley)
• Harry Orr, PhD (University of Minnesota)
• Dorothy Roberts, JD (Northwestern University)
• Charmaine Royal, PhD (Howard University)
• William Toscano, PhD (University of Minnesota)
• Susan M. Wolf, JD (University of Minnesota)

Project outcomes 

• A public conference on "Proposals for the Responsible Use of Racial and Ethnic Categories in Biomedical Research: Where Do We Go From Here?" held on April 18, 2005, and
• A symposium entitled "The Responsible Use of Racial and Ethnic Categories in Biomedical Research: Where Do We Go from Here?" published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (Fall 2006).