Date of Award
2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Natural Sciences
First Advisor
Gilchrist, Sandra
Area of Concentration
Natural Sciences
Abstract
Science and technology studies (STS) is the study of the relationships between science and technology on one hand, and society, politics, and culture on the other. Feminist/postcolonial STS uses this form of interdisciplinary inquiry to address issues relating to social justice. Of particular interest to some feminist and postcolonial STS scholars has been the topic of genetic determinism, which has historically been used to justify colonial, ethnic, sex-based and class-based hierarchies. This viewpoint fallaciously suggests that genes play a uniquely deterministic role in the development and lifestyles of humans and other organisms, relying on the idea that biological (and indeed, social) outcomes can be causally "reduced" to genetic characteristics (genetic reductionism). Feminist/ postcolonial STS scholars have long engaged in ideological critiques of genetic determinism, but two recent developments in the life sciences provide these scholars new opportunities to critique genetic determinism empirically, by undermining the reductionist methodology and ontology that serves as its foundation. These developments, namely the hologenome theory of evolution and the emergence of postgenomic science, subvert the idea that the genome constitutes a stable, bounded, and autonomous biological identity, with implications that reach across disciplinary lines.
Recommended Citation
Finch, David, "BIOPOLITICS, INDIVIDUALITY, AND ENGAGED SCIENCE: TWO PARADIGM SHIFTS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR A LIBERATORY BIOLOGY" (2020). Theses & ETDs. 5857.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5857