EUROTAST is a new European-funded research network that will bring together an unprecedented range of young researchers to examine the history of the transatlantic slave trade and to explore its long-term effects. As part of the project, we are currently hiring 13 early stage researchers (ESR1-13) and one experienced researcher (ER1). For full details on individual projects please browse below or contact us at enquiries [at] eurotast [dot] eu. If you are interested in applying, please first carefully check that you are eligible to apply before reading about our application procedure.
The primary responsibility of the ER will be to work on dissemination aspects of the project and to co-ordinate outreach activities. Based at the Centre for Geogenetics in Copenhagen, Denmark, and trained at the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (IPUP) in York, UK, the ER will be committed to communicating academic research on the slave trade into the public realm. Her/his main task will be to develop and create content for the project website to promote understanding of the individual research projects and the project as a whole. In addition, she/he will be trained in documentary-making to document the research and...
This project focuses on the use of osteoarchaeological methods to provide new data on the demography, nutritional status and health of enslaved Africans in order to gain new insights into their physical quality of life and the physical effects of enslavement.
By drawing on various skeletal collections associated with the African diaspora and transatlantic slave trade, we plan to i) assess and document the state of preservation of the skeletal material, before ii) compiling age and sex profiles and iii) recording any pathologies or signs of trauma that could be indicative of nutritional deficiencies, diseases or violent abuse...
Recent advances in protein mass-spectrometry can potentially offer new insights into i) dietary deficiencies and ii) pathogenic diseases of enslaved Africans. We know from historical records that slaves suffered from a wide range of diseases mainly due to dietary deficiencies and malnutrition. However, due to the limited medical knowledge at the time and the scant medical attention that the slaves were given, it is generally very difficult to identify specific diseases and to study their aetiology. The revolutionary methods developed in York might enable us to do so for the first time.
This project aims to improve our understanding of slave diets and their geographical origins through the analysis of stable and radiogenic isotopes in skeletal tissues associated with the African diaspora and the transatlantic slave trade. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses will be used to reconstruct diet, and to study changing patterns in diet during the lifetime. Building on recent work strontium and oxygen isotope analyses will be carried out to try to identify geographical origins and to elucidate family or tribal groups.
In addition, micro sampling strontium within a tooth using laser ablation might provide...
This project has four main components, each of which has a specific outcome. The first is to review the literature on ethnicity in the context of the Transtlantic slave trade as a platform for exploring its usefulness in terms of assessing the slave trade’s impact on Africa and the African diaspora.
The second is to build on the work of Nwokeji and Eltis on our knowledge of the ethnic origins of African captives after 1815 by a) further refining and improving the evidential base of the existing database in the light of recently discovered new data in Sierra Leone archives, and b) seeking to explore application of the Nwokeji-...
This project will focus on the use of modern genetic data to try to trace the ancestral origins of present-day African Americans. Previous studies by Salas et al. demonstrated that it is possible to use mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analyses to trace the origins of specific mtDNA lineages to within broad geographical regions in Africa, largely in accordance with historical evidence. However, the studies also showed that genetic resolution is simply not high enough to be able to trace lineages to particular ethnic groups or locales, suggesting that considerable caution is warranted when assessing the claims of some ancestry testing...
The principal aim of this project is to retrace the genetic history of the Noir Marron in French Guiana. Direct descendants of maroons who escaped their Dutch masters during the era of plantation slavery, the present day population of Noir Marron are unusual among African descendant populations in the sense that they represent a highly conserved population with extremely low levels of European and Amerindian admixture. As such, they present an ideal case study to try to retrace their genetic history and to identify specific ancestral populations in Africa.
The project builds on two previous studies based on mtDNA, NRY, Gm...
Building on recent advances in aDNA research and population genetics, this work package aims to develop a method to try to identify the origins of enslaved Africans who were brought to the New World with the slave trade. Previous attempts to use mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analyses to trace the origins of enslaved Africans have only been partly successful since many mtDNA lineages are far too common to be traced to particular ethnic groups or locales in Africa.
In addition we have to remember that uniparental markers will only ever reveal a fraction of our ancestry. One possible solution to these problems is to use autosomal...
With the development of ever more powerful sequencing platforms and targeted sequencing techniques, it has become possible to reconstruct genetic information at the ancient genome level (e.g. the first complete genome of an ancient human reported by Copenhagen in 2010), and thus to recover large quantities of ancestry informative markers (AIMs). With such data one is in theory able to investigate the ethnic origin of ancient samples in extremely high detail.
However, a fundamental missing requirement at present is the means to mine such data for AIMs such as SNPs and structural rearrangements that can be used in downstream...
This project aims to assess and document the material legacy of slavery in the Dutch Antilles in view of the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the Dutch colonies in 2013. To this end, we plan to conduct an archaeological survey on three islands in the Dutch Antilles, namely Saint Martin, Saint Eustatius and Saba. Although only very little documentary evidence survives, dozens of plantations and slave villages are identifiable on old maps and through archaeological remains.
During the first phase of the project we will document these sites and identify potential candidates for further investigation and...
This project aims to investigate the genetic legacy of the transatlantic slave trade in Europe. From the 15th century onwards a small proportion of Africans was introduced into Europe. Iberia displays one of the highest frequencies of maternal sub-Saharan lineages (haplogroups L0-6) in Europe, attaining a maximum of 11% in southern Portugal. Curiously, sub-Saharan male lineages are vestigial, supporting a strong bias in the mixed mating system. The frequency of maternal sub-Saharan lineages decreases towards Eastern Europe, being less than 0.5% in Russia. There is the possibility that some of these lineages were introduced via the...
This project focuses on a highly novel idea in human genetics, namely to reconstruct the genome of a long dead individual using genetic data available through his descendants. The individual in question is Hans Jonatan, a slave of mixed ancestry who was born in the Caribbean in 1784. His mother was African and his father Danish, most probably Ludvig von Schimmelmann, governor of the Danish West Indies at the time. In the 1790s, Jonatan moved to Europe where he fought in the Napoleonic Wars and in 1816 he settled in Iceland where he married Katrín Antoníusdóttir, with whom he had two children through which he has about 500 present...
This project will examine the manner in which emergent genetic data are mediated and used to construct individual and collective identities. Genetic ancestry testing has become a significant social phenomenon, particularly among African-Americans who embrace this new technology as a way to reconnect with their African ‘roots’ and to reclaim lost aspects of their African identity and cultural heritage. Unfortunately, however, the science underlying these tests is often misunderstood and misrepresented. Although it is important for consumers to understand the limitations of genetic ancestry testing and the complex relation between DNA...
The other work packages in this proposal will generate a vast body of new genetic, historical and material evidence relating to the social, biological and economic consequences of the transatlantic slave trade, with the explicit objective of placing these data in the public domain and facilitating access by non-academic as well as academic audiences and consumers.
The purpose of this work package is to research current strategies toward public presentation of these issues in different geographical localities that were tied to the Transatlantic Slave Trade – namely West Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States....
