About

Carlos Andrés Barragán is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Postdoctoral Researcher in the Science and Technology Studies Program (STS) and the Department of Philosophy at UC Davis.

In collaboration with Dr. James R. Griesemer (Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy, and affiliated Faculty in the STS Department and the Center for Population Biology), their current research agenda blends archival, ethnographical and conceptual analysis about the re-situation of data-intensive human genomics among research laboratories and companies in California and South America (NSF Grant No: SES-1849307-0). Specifically, their research project seeks to understand how the traveling of specific scientific objects in human genomics (models, datasets, software, findings, and visualizations) is engaged by other life-scientists and by the human populations represented in biomedical and population genomic studies. Their analysis will offer recommendations from both STS and life-sciences perspectives on how to foster cooperation and collaboration between life-scientists and the individuals and communities they study, and between these and other stakeholders concerned with issues of data governance, innovation, identity, metadata, and scientific robustness.

Carlos Andrés is also preparing his first book manuscript in English based on his dissertation “Lineages within genomes: Situating human genetics research and contentious bio-identities in Northern South America.” This was a multi-sited ethnography that focused on the production, circulation, and contestation of abstractions such as “admixture” (mestizaje), “ancestry,” “diversity,” “ethnicity,” and “race” in the fields of biomedicine, human genetics, and physical and socio-cultural anthropology.

Publications

BARRAGÁN, Carlos Andrés and James R. GRIESEMER (2023). “Between STRUCTURE and ADMIXTURE: “modeling” models in human population genomics software packages”. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) / University of Hawai’i. Panel: “Racialized technologies”, organized by Dr. Ros Williams and Dr. Anne Pollock. November 11. Honolulu: 4S / University of Hawai’i.

BARRAGÁN, Carlos Andrés and James R. GRIESEMER (2023). “ ‘We needed less contemporary genomic noise’: substantiating ancient DNA as a research environment”. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB). Panel: “Conceptualising Environments in and for Research: Biological and Philosophical Perspectives”, chaired by Dr. Sabina Leonelli and Dr. Rose Trappes. July 10-15. Toronto: ISHPSSB / University of Toronto / University of Western Ontario.

BARRAGÁN, Carlos Andrés and James R. GRIESEMER (2022). “Indigeneity within datasets: DNA sequences journeys and genomic representations about the Karitiana (Yjxa) people”. Paper presented at the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, AABA (Virtual). March 31. Denver: AABA.

GRIESEMER, James R. and Carlos Andrés BARRAGÁN (2021). “Re-situating scientific knowledge: thinking with Mary S. Morgan”. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA). November 11-14. Baltimore: PSA.

BARRAGÁN, Carlos Andrés and James R. GRIESEMER (2021). “Identity by descent (IBD) as an algorithm-and-simulation practice in current human population genomics research”. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB). July 13-20. Cold Spring Harbor: ISHPSSB / Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL).

BARRAGÁN, Carlos Andrés and James R. GRIESEMER (2020). “When do human genomic ancestry datasets become biomedical datasets?”. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) / European Association for the Study of Science & Technology (EASST). Panel: “Flows and overflows of personal health data”, organized by Dr. Niccolò Tempini. August 18-21. Prague: 4S / EASST.

Publications

BARRAGÁN, Carlos Andrés; Sivan YAIR, and James R. GRIESEMER
(2025). “Eventualizing human diversity dynamics: admixture modeling through time and space”. In: MERCHANT Emily and Meaghan O’KEEFE (eds.), DNA, race, and reproduction, pp. …-… Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. In press.

(2022). “Gene hunters and their hunters: the staging of genomic trafficking and bioethical transgressions”. In-progress article manuscript

(2022) “Predicting the past: data silencing practices in the contextualization of archaeological, ethnohistorical, linguistic, and genomic datasets”. In-progress article manuscript

GRIESEMER, James R. and Carlos Andrés BARRAGÁN (2022). “Re-situations of scientific knowledge: a case study of a skirmish over clusters vs clines in human population genomics”. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences. 44: Article 16.

(2021). “Human admixture in time and space: mestizaje through genomic renderings”. In-progress article manuscript

STAUNTON, Ciara; Carlos Andrés BARRAGÁN, Stefano CANALI, Calvin HO, Sabina LEONELLI, Katherine LITTLER, Matthew MAYERNIK, Barbara PRAINSACK and Ambroise WONKHAM (2021). “Open science, data sharing and solidarity: who benefits?”. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43(4): Article 115.

SENSIPER, Sylvia and Carlos Andrés BARRAGÁN (2017). “The Guardian Professions Program: developing an advanced degree mentoring program for California’s foster care alumni”. Children and Youth Services Review 82(11): 329-336.

SENSIPER, Sylvia and Carlos Andrés BARRAGÁN (2017). “Honor the aspirations of foster kids, youths”. The Davis Enterprise (May 17): B4.

(2016). Lineages within genomes: situating human genetics research and contentious bio-identities in Northern South America. Davis: PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis (UC Davis).

(2015). “Untangling population mixture? Genomic admixture and the idea of mestizos in Latin America”. Gene Watch 28(2): 11-13, 20-21.

(2015). “Entre redes científicas, alianzas intelectuales y fricciones políticas: itinerarios etnológicos de Gregorio Hernández de Alba (1935-1945)”. In: HERNÁNDEZ de ALBA, Gregorio ([1940]2015), La cultura arqueológica de San Agustín, pp. 95-167. Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia (ICANH).

(2015). “Diario de un manuscrito: sobre la presente edición”. In: HERNÁNDEZ de ALBA, Gregorio ([1940]2015), La cultura arqueológica de San Agustín, pp. 29-55. Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia (ICANH).

PINEDA CAMACHO, Roberto and Carlos Andrés BARRAGÁN (2014). “ ‘Arana comes to face the music’: el Paraíso del Diablo en el estrado británico”. In: STEINER SANPEDRO, Claudia; Carlos PÁRAMO BONILLA and Roberto PINEDA CAMACHO (eds.), El paraíso del Diablo: Roger Casement y el Informe del Putumayo, un siglo después, pp. 325-458. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia / Universidad de Los Andes.

(2012). “Molecular vignettes of the Colombian nation: the place(s) of race and ethnicity in networks of biocapital”. In: GIBBON, Sahra; Ricardo Ventura SANTOS and Mónica SANS (eds.), Racial identities, genetic ancestry and health in South America, pp. 41-68. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Awards

(2020). Awarded with a University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) Fellowship to participate in the Residential Research Group Artificial Humanity (Spring, 2020). Research Project: “Artificial Intelligence (AI) as cultural implosions: situating design practices in predictive human genomics”. Irvine: UC Irvine / UCHRI. Note: Award declined due to administrative incompatibility with NSF Grant No: SES-1849307-0.

(2019-2025). Awarded with a National Science Foundation (NSF) Standard Research Grant. Research Project: “A case study of how the re-situation of scientific knowledge from human population genomics works” (NSF Grant No: SES-1849307-0). Alexandria: NSF. Co-authored with: Dr. James R. Griesemer.

(2013). Awarded with a Dissertation Write-Up Fellowship (Wadsworth International Fellowship). Research Project: “Lineages within genomes: Situating human genetics research and contentious bio-identities in Northern South America”. New York: The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc.

(2010). Awarded with a Pacific Rim Research Program (PRRP) Dissertation Grant. Research Project: “Lineages within genomes: Situating human genetics research and contentious bio-identities in Northern South America”. Oakland: University of California, Office of the President (UCOP) / PRRP.