Monica Sans will present work from a project described in her latest book Racial Identities, Genetic Ancestry, and Health in South America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay. Advance readings available upon request from Jessica Bardill (jbardill@illinois.edu) or Ripan Malhi (malhi@illinois.edu).
In work that highlights the unique situation of Uruguay, its population and national identity, Monica Sans demonstrates how her work in population genetics over the decades has undone the idea that there are no longer indigenous peoples in Uruguay. In this chapter, Sans reads racial theory as well as larger population data along with her population genetics research on mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNAs to demonstrate how the national identity of Uruguay is changing in ways supported by science, rhetoric and politics.

Additional funding for Monica Sans provided by The Institute for Genomic Biology.