Professor Elise Burton has won a Connaught New Researcher Award. Designed to help winners establish a strong research program and increase their competitiveness for external funding, the award is supported by the Connaught Fund and is part of U of T’s commitment to fostering excellence in research and innovation by supporting faculty members who are in the early stages of their academic careers. You can read more about this year's winners in the official announcement.
Professor Burton's primary research interests are race, ethnicity and nationalism; the history of genetics and evolutionary biology; and transnational scientific collaboration. Before joining U of T, she held a Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge (Newnham College). She earned a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, in two subjects, biology and Middle Eastern studies. In 2017, she completed her PhD in History & Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.
Her first book, Genetic Crossroads: The Middle East and the Science of Human Heredity, will be published in January 2021 by Stanford University Press. She has also published articles in Comparative Studies of Society and History, Social Studies of Science and Isis.
Congratulations, Elise!