Human Diversity seminar 28.1. 2026, T. Saupe & T. Kachkovskaia
PhD Tina Saupe & PhD Tatiana Kachkovskaia, University of Turku
Title (Tina Saupe): Appointment with Death: New insights into the demographic history of the Mediterranean Basin using ancient DNA
Keywords: ancient DNA, Human Population Genetics, Mediterranean Basin
Abstract: With the exponential availability of ancient human genomes worldwide, researchers of different disciplines have been increasingly interested in linking changes in genetic-related ancestries, socio-cultural-related patterns, and stable isotopes. In the recent years, more genetic data retrieved from ancient human individuals in the Mediterranean Basin has become publicly available and strengthen evidence for the connections between the Western Mediterranean, West Asia, and regions far beyond. This seminar examines the arrival of genetic ancestries from the Pontic–Caspian Steppe and the Iranian Plateau into the Mediterranean Basin during the Bronze Age, presenting new genetic data from the Italian Peninsula and the Levant. Short- and long-term patterns of human mobility are further investigated through an integrated analysis of genetic ancestry and stable isotope evidence, including strontium isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr), to assess the geographic origins of selected local and non-local individuals.
Title (Tatiana Kachkovskaia): Understanding Variation in Spoken Language
Abstract: Variation is an essential part of human communication. For us, this is completely natural, thanks to our remarkable ability to adjust quickly to the speaking habits of every new person we meet. At the same time, we are highly effective at inferring personal characteristics of our interlocutors—even without seeing them—by judging their age, gender, origin, and personality traits. This means that the speech signal contains information about all kinds of individual features of the speaker, along with many other layers of information. In this presentation, I will discuss the sources of such variation. We will begin with between‑speaker variation, exploring how (and why) the shapes and sizes of speech organs and cavities influence the production of speech sounds. Next, we will talk about the sources of within‑speaker variation: how various states (e.g., emotions) may change a person’s speech, and why the same individual may use different ways of speaking depending on the social situation. Finally, we will look at how variation in human speech can be investigated on a worldwide scale using modern resources such as typological datasets and multilingual speech corpora.
Welcome everyone!
More information about the Human Diversity activities can be found at our webpage:
https://sites.utu.fi/humandiversity/event/