Microbiome Research and Race in the 'Local South'

This project is led by Abigail Nieves Delgado; I am a postdoc, and Elian Schure is a PhD student. Together, we aim to study how race and other ethno-racial descriptors are used as classificatory labels in human microbiome research. We integrate history, philosophy, and qualitative methods to approach this issue, and we are supported by a network of collaborators in Latin America, South Africa, Germany, and the UK (See the full description of the project on our website).

In this context, we have already organised an interdisciplinary workshop (also with Phila Msimang) in South Africa in October 2025, gathering 20+ philosophers, anthropologists, and microbiologists from inside and outside academia. We fostered dialogue through group discussions on local challenges in microbiome research (see the workshop website and the poster). As a follow-up, we are also guest co-editors of a Special Issue to be published in Open Access in the South African Journal of Science (see call for papers - closed). We are setting up another workshop next year to present our results to the scientific community and foster discussion.

My role in this project focuses on understanding scientific practices in the use of race and other ethno-racial categories, especially in the Latin American context. I am studying the role of these labels in scientific inferences, their definitions and historical development and their contemporary use in microbiome research. To do so, I use semi-structured interviews and an original method for focus group discussions. My aim is to propose conceptual solutions grounded in scientific practice to help scientists avoid racism.