Instructor: Dr. Zara Browne is an anthropologist who dedicated her doctoral research to the Irish Traveller community of Murphy Village in North Augusta, SC. She specializes in nomadic and separatist communities. Zara's work in Murphy Village has been featured in multiple news outlets, including The Post and Courier and Augusta Today. Description: What are the ancestral origins of the people who call themselves Irish Travellers? Are they Irish? Are they Roma? What outsiders call “Gypsy?” Or perhaps some other ancestry altogether? In two class sessions, you will learn about the historical (and current) debates about the ancestral origins of the Irish Traveller community, research studies revealing the results of their genetic drift findings, how Irish Travellers and non-Irish Travellers talk about Irish Traveller “difference” in Ireland, their ancestry testing results today, and Irish Traveller theories about their “blood.” This is the first course of the “Irish Traveller Origin Debates” series.