Introduction to the Special Issue on Integrating Genetics and the Social Sciences

摘要

The First Annual Integrating Genetics and the Social Sciences (IGSS) conference was held on June 2 to 3 at the Institute of Behavioral Science on the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder (http://www.colorado.edu/ibs/CUPC/conferences/IGSS_2010/). This conference was primarily supported by a grant from the Population Association of America (PAA). Additional support was provided by the Institute of Behavioral Science, the NICHD-funded University of Colorado Population Center, Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, and the department of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The purpose of this conference was to bring together social scientists who are currently working on problems that involve the use of genetic data or genetically informative study designs. In doing so, we addressed the following goals of the PAA: (a) promote demographic research; (b) expand the profile of the PAA by reaching out to non-members, multiple disciplines, and publishing the research presented at the conference; (c) broaden international activities by inviting international scholars; and (d) promote and expand the use of population data sources with (or with plans to collect) genetic information from their respondents.