Browsing by Subject "genetic engineering"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Engineering Kinship: Genetic Technologies, Economic Speculation, and the Queer Body
    (2017-06) Mathiason, Jessica
    Linking the critical humanities to the biological sciences, this dissertation investigates how progressive, queer, and anti-racist techniques and technologies of kinship emerge in Progressive Era eugenic cinema and return, reformulated, in twenty-first-century sci-fi film and television. Drawing on research conducted at the Library of Congress, the Wangensteen Health Sciences Library, and the John E. Allen Archives, I contest the traditional narrative that American eugenics was an exclusively right-wing movement by revealing the surprising appearance of several radical elements—feminism, progressive economics, and social welfare reform—within this otherwise pernicious social project. I argue prominent figures as diverse as the African-American physician Dorothy Ferebee and the Sapphic writer Edith Ellis co-opted eugenic discourses to find support for their social struggles. Today, these progressive strands of eugenic ideology have been de-radicalized through the shift from state-sponsored eugenic projects to corporation-driven geneticism. The new genetics movement has adopted neoliberal theories of growth to overcome economic and ecological limits. Pairing ReGenesis and Orphan Black with an analysis of gene patenting cases brought before the U.S. Supreme Court, I argue this speculative future veers away from the progressives’ valuation of queer difference by employing technological means and legal strategies to compel domestic normativity. Divided into two parts, this dissertation offers a comparative analysis of the ideological inheritance left to what I call “New Eugenic Media” from its counterparts in the Progressive Era through a critical examination of two collections, separated by a century: the U.S. Department of War’s hygiene films from 1915-1922 and sci-fi film and television from 2000-2015.
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    Genetic Methods for Biological Control of Non-Native Fish in the Gila River Basin: Final Report to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
    (University of Minnesota, Institute for Social, Economic and Ecological Sustainability, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2005-09) Kapuscinski, Anne R.; Patronski, Timothy J.
    This report addresses the feasibility of using genetic methods as a new approach for biological control of non-native fish within the Gila River Basin. This feasibility study was sponsored by the Central Arizona Project Funds Transfer Program. The report reviews the status of existing genetic methods including chromosome set manipulations and recombinant DNA techniques; takes a preliminary look at potential ecological and human health risks; outlines policy and regulatory considerations; stresses the need for and presents an approach for multi-stakeholder deliberation; provides general cost and time estimates; and suggests integration of these considerations into a multi-component research and development program.
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    Safety First: Making It a Reality for Biotechnology Products
    (Institute for Social, Economic and Ecological Sustainability, 2002-04-22) Institute for Social, Economic & Ecological Sustainability
    The Initiative is proposing a model for pro-active, industry-wide biosafety standards. This pro-active approach uses science and representative public deliberation to: anticipate and resolve biosafety issues as far upstream of commercialization as possible before developers seek regulatory approval of a product; stress public-private partnerships beyond government regulation; and produce biosafety policies that are financially and administratively feasible. Towards this end, the Initiative proposes moving forward to establish the standards and framework for an industry-wide safety program for genetic engineering (and other biotechnology) products, using a process that utilizes the principles of safety engineering that have been successful in other industries.