[Sci-tech-public] Harvard STS Circle (March 3) - RSVP

[Debbie Meinbresse]

>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Please RSVP to 
><mailto:sang-hyun_kim at ksg.harvard.edu>sang-hyun_kim at ksg.harvard.edu 
>by Feb. 29 (Friday).
>
>================================================
>
>
>STS Circle at Harvard: March 3 (Monday), 2008
>
>
>Science, Subjectivity, and the Structure of
>"Ethical Problems" in the Environmental Health Sciences
>
>
>Sara Shostak
>(Department of Sociology, Brandeis University)
>
>
>12:15-2:00 p.m. at 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106
>
>
>Abstract:
>
>Historically, environmental health scientists 
>worked primarily with animal models and focused 
>on producing knowledge that would inform the 
>regulation of chemicals in the ambient 
>environment (e.g., air, water, soil). 
>Consequently, neither individual human beings 
>nor genetically demarcated subpopulations 
>traditionally have been subjects of 
>environmental health research. In contrast, as 
>environmental health scientists increasingly 
>take up genetic/genomic modes of knowledge 
>production, they "bring the human in" to 
>environmental health governance in novel ways.
>     This paper describes the efforts of 
> environmental health scientists to use 
> molecular technologies to focus their research 
> inside the human body, ascertain human genetic 
> variations in susceptibility to adverse 
> outcomes following environmental exposures, and 
> identify individuals who have sustained DNA 
> damage as a consequence of exposure to 
> chemicals in the environment. Each of these 
> scientific practices and their proposed 
> applications in biomedical and regulatory 
> settings instantiates specific notions of the 
> human subject and its agency, possibilities, 
> and responsibilities vis-à-vis health and illness.
>     Many environmental health scientists 
> believe that these new modes of knowledge 
> production have "ethical, legal, and social 
> implications" (ELSI). As has been the case with 
> other emergent genetic/genomic projects, 
> scientists and policy makers have turned to 
> bioethics for help in creating knowledge and 
> guidelines to govern such 
> "implications."  However, in this paper, I 
> contend that the limitations in the bioethical 
> and scientific notions of the human subject 
> make it difficult to identify or address 
> adequately the broader social factors that 
> shape the consequences of molecularization in 
> the environmental health sciences. In contrast, 
> I highlight the contribution of approaches 
> developed in sociology and STS for 
> investigating the relationships between 
> scientific knowledge, forms of subjectivity, 
> and dimensions of the social organization that 
> structure the "ethical implications" of science.
>
>Biography:
>
>Sara Shostak is Assistant Professor of Sociology 
>at Brandeis University. Dr. Shostak's research 
>centers on emerging relationships between 
>science, medicine, subjectivity and social 
>organization. Her current book project Defining 
>Vulnerabilities: Genes, the Environment, and the 
>Body Politic examines the emergence of 
>genetic/genomic disciplines in the environmental 
>health sciences and their consequences for the 
>wider arena of environmental health in the 
>United States. Her analysis draws on data from 
>in-depth qualitative interviews, ethnographic 
>participant observation, and historical 
>materials, enabling consideration of the 
>perspectives of environmental health scientists, 
>risk assessors, policy makers, and environmental 
>health and justice activists. Dr. Shostak is 
>currently working on a study that examines 
>whether and how genetic information enters into 
>the experience of having epilepsy or of being 
>the family member of a person with epilepsy. 
>Another current project looks at how people make 
>use of "nature" and "nurture" in their accounts 
>of inequalities across outcomes such as health, 
>intelligence, and success in life. Prior to 
>coming to Brandeis, she was a Robert Wood 
>Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at Columbia University.
>
>================================================
>
>For more information about the Harvard STS 
>circle, please visit our website at: 
><http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sts/events/weeklymeeting.htm>http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/sts/events/weeklymeeting.htm 
>
>or e-mail to: 
><mailto:sang-hyun_kim at ksg.harvard.edu>sang-hyun_kim at ksg.harvard.edu 
>or <mailto:jhurlbut at fas.harvard.edu>jhurlbut at fas.harvard.edu.
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