Jon_C_memo_13


 * Research Design Grid **


 * aims || questions || data collection || emerging arguments || literatures ||
 * To generate knowledge about disciplinary formation and the creation of epigenetic expertise || How is the discipline of epigenetics forming? How do they gain expertise? || Participant observation in labs, ethnographic interviews with scientists || There has been some discussion in my research so far that shows that epigenetics is a new discipline, but calls upon the well-situated expertise of biological disciplines such as genetics and genomics. || STS literature on disciplinary formation, expertise ||
 * To redoubt anti-racist projects in the face of research that creeps upon anti-biological determinist frameworks || How is epigenetic research changing how people think about race? How do epigeneticists conceptualize race and how does it change/influence their research? || Ethnographic interviews with scientists, discourse analysis of popular media and scientific publications. || There is some discussion of race within epigenetics in my research so far, and what I see is a lukewarm stance against racism (certain scientists are unwilling to make a strong commitment to anti-racism, leaving the question open for others who use their research to decide). I would like to see how this plays out when I interview epigeneticists to tease out what they really mean. || Anthropological and biological literatures on anti-racism ||
 * To generate knowledge about how the sciences make knowledge || (This is linked with the first aim) How do epigeneticists perform their research? How does epigenetics gain validity? || Participant observation in laboratories, to a lesser extent ethnographic interviews, discourse analysis of scientific publications. || I think that because epigenetics is framed as an extension of genetics and genomics, that it has yet to come into its own as a field, but the way that some scientists are talking about it, that it will, in time, develop itself as a unique transdisciplinary field. || STS literature on the social construction of knowledge, philosophy of science (to a lesser extent) ||
 * To create a new understanding of how scientists reframe nature/nurture(culture) when faced with new science || What are the various ways in which epigeneticists think about nature and culture? How does epigenetics influence other disciplines' conceptualizations of nature/culture? || Ethnographic interviews with scientists, discourse analysis of popular media and scientific publications. || What I see going on in epigenetics so far with regards to this nature/nurture(culture) question is that they want to break down the current biological models of causality and determination, and either supplement or replace it with a more nuanced version which comports more with the "triple helix" model put forth by Richard Lewontin. While there's no explicit mention of him, I would not be surprised if they agreed. || STS literature on disciplinary formation, recent philosophy of science (Haraway, Pickering, Hacking, Rheinberger, Barad) ||