Necrovalue and death work
Mosquito-borne diseases such as the Zika virus and malaria are increasing dramatically word wide. As traditional methods of vector control prove to be little effective and often harmful to local ecosystems, new approaches are sought for tackling this public health crisis. Amongst the most promising ones are genetic strategies which use the mosquitoes’ own biology and reproductive capabilities against themselves. These approaches not only turn the mosquitoes into a public health tool but also promise the large-scale eradication of mosquito-borne disease. Starting from the hypothesis that rather than only commodifying the vital processes of ‘life itself’ (Franklin; Rose), death and eradication is inscribed into the mosquitoes’ genetic code in order to ensure public health, the aim of my research is twofold: First, I explore the role of expectations as future-making practices in the bioeconomy of transgenic mosquitoes through which not only ‘speculative value’ (Sunder Rajan) is generated but also particular futures made present at the exclusion of others. Second, I argue that these novel genetic strategies mark a broader shift in molecular genetics from the production of ‘biovalue’ (Waldby) to what I will call ‘necrovalue’—that is, the technoscientific mobilization and economization of death itself as that which entails value.
I am Principal Investigator of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für die Förderung der Wissenschaften-funded research project “Ensuring public health through mobilizing death: Expectations as future-making practices in the bioeconomy of transgenic mosquitoes” (Az. 20.21.0.010SO; 10/2021-09/2023) |
Relational sociology of technology
Expanding on sociological theories of technology stressing that the social is inextricably intertwined with the technical, this strand of my research examines the relational dimension, the socializing function, and the meaningfulness of technical objects in social interactions. In doing so, I assume that technology can neither be reduced to material objects nor to symbols and signs. Far more than merely functioning as an instrument or artifact, technologies are involved in the production of subjectivities, bodies, and social worlds. Such a sociological take on technology not only focuses on the relationship between the technical and the social, but also advocates for an understanding of technology as a mediator, as a specific form of being, and thus as fundamentally relational phenomenon.
Building on theses insights, I explore, for example, the materialization of (racialized) bodies in the context of algorithmic and biometric technologies. Challenging the epistemic and material terms under which bodies are considered either as inert or as fluid matter—including the accompanying racist discourses of biological inferiority and ontological plasticity—this research argues that calls to program racial bias out of technologies are not enough, for they remain caught up in the idea of neutral technology and the possibility of objective measurements as practices of mapping pre-existing bodies. Together with Marco Tamborini (TU Darmstadt), I am following these ideas through the term of "biohybrid objects". Symposium: "Living techno-natures: biohybrid objects, life, and technology", 7 March 2024, Goehte University Frankfurt. |
New materialist methodologies
Growing out of my involvement in the COST Action 'New Materialism', this strand of my research explores the potentials of new materialist methods for investigations into the relationship between epistemology, objectivity, and research ethics. I am particularly interested in the role 'diffraction' (Haraway, Barad, van der Tuin) plays in reworking the relationship between the objects of observation and the agencies of observation, and subsequently in reshaping the question of the referent of objectivity. Building on these insights, I propose the notion of the researcher as transducer in order to arrive at an understanding of the researcher as themselves materializing in intra-action with other human and more-than-human forces and practices, shifting our attention not only to the performative power of research as a material practice but also to the constitutive nature of knowledge-making practices, along with their ethical and political implications. Furthermore, this strand of my research draws on the concept of the apparatus of bodily production in the work of Donna Haraway and Karen Barad and develops it into a speculative tool for the taking into account of the regulatory practices through which bodies materialize in their entanglements with technologies, putting forward an understanding of the relationship between the body and technology as a relation of ontological indeterminacy.
From 2016 through 2018, I was Co-Chair of the COST - European Cooperation in Science and Technology Action IS1307 New Materialism: Networking European Scholarship on 'How Matter Comes to Matter' (PI Prof. Iris van der Tuin, Utrecht University) working group “New Materialisms on the Crossroads of the Natural and Human Sciences”
From 2016 through 2018, I was Co-Chair of the COST - European Cooperation in Science and Technology Action IS1307 New Materialism: Networking European Scholarship on 'How Matter Comes to Matter' (PI Prof. Iris van der Tuin, Utrecht University) working group “New Materialisms on the Crossroads of the Natural and Human Sciences”
