About the seminar series

The "Biosocial - So What?" series seeks to challenge traditional boundaries between biological and social sciences, exploring the complex entanglements between microscopic life/particles and human/animal living conditions. We aim to critically examine the concept of 'environment' and further develop biosocial theory and understanding across barriers of organisms and species.

Key themes we hope to address include:

1. Theoretical and methodological interventions for studying environment-organism relations

2. Implications of the 'organism multiple' for concepts of species and multi-species ethnography

3. Rethinking porous relations transcending the classical separations of the biological and social domains

4. Challenges and opportunities in studying biosocial phenomena in the Anthropocene

Abstract:

In this talk, I take an interest in temporal ‘non-imagination’ (Prainsack 2022). In political discussions and conversations among central actors in precision medicine in the Global North, I point to the absence—a non-imagination—of treating present and future environmental collapse as relevant to the field, despite the field’s huge energy consumption. This nonimagination raises questions about how medical anthropology may approach and theorize the earthly connection of the ‘life politics’ at the center of anthropological studies of the life sciences. In light of the current ecological peril, I advocate for extending our focus from the governance of life in politics, labs, and clinics to the governance of earth-life.

Bio:

Mette N. Svendsen is Professor in the Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Her research explores ethical and existential dimensions of medical science and technology. Theoretically, her work has crafted dialogues between science and technology studies, medical anthropology, and public health. Methodologically, she has developed innovative comparative approaches to investigate life and its value. She is the author of the monograph Near Human: Border Zones of Life, Species, and Belonging published by Rutgers University Press (2022)

Registration:

Do you want to participate physically or online? Please get in touch with sofia@aias.au.dk to sign up, and let us know whether you plan to participate physically or online.

Zoom links will be sent out to online participants ahead of all seminars.