Spencer Wells

GRANVILLE, Ohio— Geneticist, anthropologist and author Spencer Wells will provide the opening convocation for Denison University’s campus-wide theme for 2011-2012, “Migrations.” Wells, the director of the Genographic Project and the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor at Cornell University, will deliver a lecture titled “Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project,” at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8, in Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). The lecture, sponsored by the Spectrum Series, the Ronneberg Lecture Series, the Office of First-Year Programs and the Office of the President, is free and open to the public.

Wells will discuss the migration patterns of human DNA across the world over the last 60,000 years. Over the years, small genetic changes in human DNA add up to a visible history of human migrations through time. Wells will explain how each individual’s DNA contributes another piece to our knowledge of human history.

The “Migrations” campus theme will investigate the movement throughout history of humans and animals and also the transfer of culture by economic, social, geographic and political forces.