{"id":50905,"date":"2026-10-02T13:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T17:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=50905"},"modified":"2026-10-02T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T17:54:15","slug":"microbiome-and-amazonian-indigenous-peoples-ethics-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/event\/microbiome-and-amazonian-indigenous-peoples-ethics-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Microbiome and Amazonian Indigenous Peoples, Ethics and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

This webinar and coffee hour is part of the Microbes and Social Equity 2026 Speaker Series.<\/em><\/p>\n

Microbiome and Amazonian Indigenous Peoples, Ethics and Beyond<\/h3>\n
What changes when microbiome research is shaped by relationships, ethics, and Indigenous ways of understanding life?<\/h5>\n

Dr Zent and Dr Melby will explore how microbiome research intersects with Indigenous knowledge, ethics, and ways of understanding life. Drawing on long-term work with Amazonian Indigenous communities, the talk will consider how relationships between humans, microbes, and the environment are understood within different knowledge systems.<\/p>\n

They will examine the ethical challenges of microbiome research in these contexts, including questions of ownership, representation, and responsibility. Rather than seeking to merge perspectives, the talk highlights the importance of respecting distinct ways of knowing, while creating space for dialogue and mutual learning. This approach reframes microbiome research as not only a scientific endeavor, but also a relational and ethical practice.<\/p>\n

After the talk, we continue the conversation with an informal social hour. Join us as we chat with the speaker, MSE members, and attendees about research, teaching, our pets, and more!<\/p>\n

Programme (Timings are EST)<\/strong><\/p>\n

11:00 Welcome and introduction – Professor Sue Ishaq, Founder and Lead, MSE
\n11:05 Guest speaker – Dr Egle\u00e9 Zent, PhD & Dr Melissa Melby PhD
\n11:45 Audience question and answer session
\n12:00 Informal coffee and chat
\n13:00 Close<\/p>\n

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Speakers: <\/strong>Dr Egle\u00e9 Zent, PhD & Dr Melissa Melby PhD<\/p>\n

About the speakers: <\/strong>Eglee Zent is the mother of two sons and has an eclectic academic background (art history, anthropology, botany, conservation biology). She conducted graduate studies at universities in Venezuela (Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas, IVIC) and the USA (Georgia and California at Berkeley). She has carried out ethno-ecological, eco-cosmological, ethnocartographic and microbiome research in the high Venezuelan Andes among Paramero people as well as in the lowland Amazon among the Jot\u00ef, an Amerindian group. Her research embraces trans-disciplinary epistemologies and approaches, drawing in material and ideological, quantitative and qualitative, aspects. Eglee is an Assistant Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Vermont.<\/p>\n

Melissa Melby is a professor of medical anthropology at the University of Delaware<\/a>, with a background in chemistry, public health, and nutritional epidemiology. Her research explores how environmental, biological, and sociocultural factors shape health across the life course, with a strong focus on the human microbiome. Dr Melby is co-director of CIFAR\u2019s Humans & the Microbiome program and has published widely on topics including antibiotic use, traditional medicine, and how people understand and interact with their microbial environments. Her work brings a critical lens to the science and culture of microbes in daily life.<\/p>\n

Register Here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This webinar and coffee hour is part of the Microbes and Social Equity 2026 Speaker Series. Microbiome and Amazonian Indigenous Peoples, Ethics and Beyond What changes when microbiome research is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2564,"featured_media":50909,"template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":"","spc_primary_tribe_events_cat":-1},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[114],"class_list":["post-50905","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-microbes","cat_microbes"],"taxonomy_info":{"tribe_events_cat":[{"value":114,"label":"Microbes and Social Equity speaker series"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/483\/2026\/10\/Untitled-design-1024x663.png",1024,663,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"ashantz","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/author\/ashantz\/"},"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/50905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/50905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50914,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/50905\/revisions\/50914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50905"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=50905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}