Jon_C_memo_10

First and foremost, I would like to draw on and contribute to the field of STS. [Summary of Rheinberger, Lenoir (Rheinberger Mk.II) Latour, Barad] My theoretical framework, as far as I see it now, will draw upon Rheinberger's conception of the testing system and the experimental system (Rheinberger, 1997; Lenoir, 1998). In the Jirtle lab which I hope to study, the Agouti gene, and its associated epigenetic markers, were discovered in 2003 (Waterland & Jirtle, 2003), and have been used as a testing system for epigenetic influences of either certain chemicals, or nutritional states (Dolinoy et al., 2007). As Rheinberger puts it -- the Agouti gene "system," when it was first discovered, was an experimental system, but has since shifted to a testing system during the last few years. Within the last year, it was used to extend the knowledge of damage caused by bisphenol-A to include not only the hormone mimicry, but to show that it caused damage to the epigenome of mice (Dolinoy et al., 2007). I hope to extend Rheinberger's framework, using it as a starting point for the formation of my own theory. From Latour, I hope to draw upon his theory of how scientific knowledge is constructed, and how credibility within science is generated. This will be helpful to my project because while the social interactions within my laboratory study might have their own idiosyncrasies, the overall picture presented by Latour in Laboratory Life will probably hold true (Latour, 1979). Karen Barad's work will provide a phenomenological level to my work that will underlie the way I think about the way science works, and show me what to look for when I am doing the participant observation portion of my research (Barad, 2003, 2007). This research informs my project because it will be the central object of my study -- how scientific knowledge is created.
 * Three Literatures, Thirty Citations ** [Bibliographies imported from EndNote.]
 * INCOMPLETE DRAFT v.4**
 * Knowledge Systems/Stuctures, Epistemology:**

Barad, K. (1998). "Getting Real: Technoscientific Practices and the Materialization of Reality." __Differences.__ **10**(2): 87. Barad, K. (2003). "Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter." __Signs.__ **28**(3): 801. Barad, K. M. (2007). __Meeting the universe halfway : quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning__. Durham, Duke University Press. Haraway, D. J. (1991). __Simians, cyborgs, and women : the reinvention of nature__. New York, Routledge. Harding, S. G. (1991). __Whose science? Whose knowledge? : thinking from women's lives__. Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press. Latour, B. and S. Woolgar (1979). __Laboratory life : the social construction of scientific facts__. Beverly Hills, Sage Publications. Lenoir, T. (1998). __Inscribing science : scientific texts and the materiality of communication__. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press. Pickering, A. (1995). __The mangle of practice : time, agency, and science__. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Polanyi, M. (1966). __The tacit dimension__. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday. Rheinberger, H.-J. r. (1997). __Toward a history of epistemic things : synthesizing proteins in the test tube__. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press.
 * Bibliography:**


 * Field Formation / Expertise Creation:**

This research informs my project because it will be a bolstering force for my central component of how scientific knowledge is produced: it will show who is entitled and empowered to ask scientific questions, who has a role in the creation of scientific knoweldge, and what constitutes "valid" science.

Bal, R. (2005). "How to Kill with a Ballpoint: Credibility in Dutch Forensic Science." __Science Technology Human Values__ **30**(1): 52-75. Bourret, P., A. Mogoutov, et al. (2006). "A New Clinical Collective for French Cancer Genetics: A Heterogeneous Mapping Analysis." __Science Technology Human Values__ **31**(4): 431-464. Brown, P., S. McCormick, et al. (2006). ""A Lab of Our Own": Environmental Causation of Breast Cancer and Challenges to the Dominant Epidemiological Paradigm." __Science Technology Human Values__ **31**(5): 499-536. Daemmrich, A. (1998). "The Evidence Does Not Speak for Itself: Expert Witnesses and the Organization of DNA-Typing Companies." __Social Studies of Science__ **28**(5/6): 741-772. Epstein, S. (2008). "Culture and Science/Technology: Rethinking Knowledge, Power, Materiality, and Nature." __The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science__ **619**(1): 165-182. Frickel, S. (2004). __Chemical consequences : environmental mutagens, scientist activism, and the rise of genetic toxicology__. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press. Jasanoff, S. (2005). __Designs on nature : science and democracy in Europe and the United States__. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press. Knorr-Cetina, K. (1999). __Epistemic cultures : how the sciences make knowledge__. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. Latimer, J., K. Featherstone, et al. (2006). "Rebirthing the Clinic: The Interaction of Clinical Judgment and Genetic Technology in the Production of Medical Science." __Science Technology Human Values__ **31**(5): 599-630. Lynch, M. and S. Jasanoff (1998). "Introduction: Contested Identities: Science, Law and Forensic Practice." __Social Studies of Science__ **28**(5/6): 675-686. Simon, A. C. (1998). "Witnessing Identification: Latent Fingerprinting Evidence and Expert Knowledge." __Social Studies of Science__ **28**(5/6): 687-712.
 * Bibliography:**


 * The construction of race as a research category, within biology and anthropology:**

This research will inform my project because it is a site at which the first two categories I've outlined meet in a contested space, and pulls in a great deal of historical and sociological literature in this area, where what constitutes valid scientific knowledge, valid expertise and expert knowledge is a developing and open debate. What I hope to pull from Lewontin and Gould is a biological perspective on the question of race. In his book, Gould performs a step-by-step refutation of Herrnstein and Murray's __The Bell Curve__, disputing the biological evidence directly, and questioning the expertise of the sceintists that performed research in areas dealing with race. Lewontin also deals with this question as well, but takes a broader view of what constitutes race, embedding it in the field of "the triple helix," which forces the question of biological race strictly out of the category of genetics, and moves it into a "gene, organism, and environment" framework, opening up a discursive space for a more diverse discussion of the biological origins of race.

American Association for the Advancement of, S. and M. Mead (1968). __Science and the concept of race__. New York, Columbia University Press. Cann, R. L. (1988). "DNA and Human Origins." __Annual Review of Anthropology__ 17(1): 127-143. El-Haj, N. A. (2007). "The Genetic Reinscription of Race." __Annual Review of Anthropology__ 36(1): 283-300. Entine, J. (2008). __Abraham's children : race, identity and the DNA of the chosen__. New York; London, Grand Central ; Little, Brown [distributor]. Gould, S. J. (1981). __The mismeasure of man__. New York, Norton. Graves, J. L. (2001). __The Emperor's new clothes : biological theories of race at the millennium__. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press. Hartigan, J. (1995). Cultural constructions of whiteness : racial and class formations in Detroit. Hartigan, J. (1997). "Unpopular culture: The case of w`hite trash'." __Cultural Studies__ 11(2): 316-343. Hartigan, J. (1999). __Racial situations : class predicaments of whiteness in Detroit__. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press. Hartigan, J. (2005). "Odd tribes : toward a cultural analysis of white people." from http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0511/2005010059.html. Lewontin, R. C. (2000). __The triple helix : gene, organism, and environment__. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. Maller-Wille, S. and H. J. Rheinberger (2008). "Race and Genomics. Old Wine in New Bottles?" __NTM -BASEL-__ 16(3): 363-386. Tucker, W. H. (1994). __The science and politics of racial research__. Urbana, University of Illinois Press. Williams, V. J. (2006). __The social sciences and theories of race__. Urbana, University of Illinois Press.
 * Bibliography:**