Carter Clinton
Bio
Carter’s dissertation research explored the New York African Burial Ground (NYABG), the oldest and largest burial site of free and enslaved Africans ever discovered in North America used during the 17th and 18th centuries in lower Manhattan. This project illuminates the lifestyles of the New York African Burial Ground population in two phases: 1.) an elemental analysis identifying all trace metals in each burial soil sample and 2.) a bacterial analysis where we’ve reconstructed the bacterial community of each burial sample detecting unique human microbiome signatures for each inhabitant and infectious disease pathogen that may have been responsible for their deaths.
I am currently working on several projects: 1.) an admixture mapping analysis of African Americans to uncover the diversity within the African contribution 2.) an evolutionary medicine analysis exploring complex diseases in African Americans 3.) microbiome (human microbiome profile and infectious disease pathogen) research on the New York African Burial Ground grave soil samples 4.) human aDNA analysis of New York African Burial Ground inhabitants 5.) application of my unique non-destructive protocol to African American burial sites in Philadelphia, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Publications
- Core issues, case studies, and the need for expanded Legacy African American genomics , FRONTIERS IN GENETICS (2023)
- Genes, time traveling, and good tunes for the culture: Review of the In those Genes podcast by Dr. Janina Jeff (Jeff, J. [Host]. [2019‐present] In those Genes [Audio podcast]. https://inthosegenes.com/) , American Journal of Biological Anthropology (2022)
- Science Communication as a Vehicle for Visibility and Representation - with Carter Clinton, Ph.D. , New Florida Journal of Anthropology (2022)
- Genomics of African American remains — limits must not compound inequity , Nature (2021)
- Historical overview, current research, and emerging bioethical guidelines in researching the New York African burial ground , American Journal of Physical Anthropology (2020)
- Identification of trace metals and potential anthropogenic influences on the historic New York African Burial Ground population: A pXRF technology approach , Scientific Reports (2019)