A new book co-edited and co-written by Dr David Skinner, Reader in Sociology, analyses the changing politics of race, racism and science. Published in December 2011, Identity Politics and the New Genetics: Re/Creating Categories of Difference and Belonging (Berghahn) considers how and why racial and ethnic categories have appeared in recent scientific work in a variety of spheres including medicine, forensics, population genetics and popular genealogy. It explores the implications of these developments which together mean that ethnic and racial identities are more likely to be understood in biological terms.

'This is an important and extremely timely collection that will inform ongoing and evolving discussions within the social sciences and beyond about the changing relationship between identity and genomics. It captures and contributes to an emerging moment in social science engagement with genomics and issues of identity and the politics of difference.'
Sahra Gibbon, University College London

Dr Skinner's own research focuses on race, racism and forensic DNA databases. He is co-founder of a new cross-European network of researchers into science and identity politics, Technologies of Belonging.

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