Jon_C_memo_6


 * Delineating a Project **

1) My project could be about the production of new scientific theories that draw on older ones for credibility. There is already a thread of "neo-Lamarckism" in the rhetorical framing of epigenetic research. Lamarck was discredited in favor of Darwinism in the 20th century, but scientists and journalists are describing epigenetics as a "return to" or a "return of" Lamarckism (i.e. "Darwin was wrong?") They also link up the credibility of genetics and genomics into their work, not disproving, but building upon and distorting notions of heritability, environmental effects on genes, biological determinism, and the so-called "nature-nurture" divide.

2) It could also be about social justice issues, specifically poverty and environmental toxicity. Poverty comes into play because one of the core publications in the epigenetic community comes from a study of starvation in post-WWII Europe, and its effects on childhood health. This is interesting because it opens up a space for the discussion of poverty/starvation as a eugenic project. It could also deal with environmental toxicity because bisphenol-A, a chemical commonly used to make plastics, was found to be a mutagen due to its effect on the epigenome.

3) This project could also be about the nature/nurture divide, specifically on the questions of race and ethnicity, as the research that epigeneticists are doing straddles both categories. Biological origins of race and ethnicity are a hot-button question within the social sciences and the biological sciences -- if genes can be effected by the environment (through diet -- in a cultural space), then "race" is bolstered as a sociocultural category, and its biological origins are distorted and slightly diminished.