The "Biosocial - So What?" series
"The Social Microbiome: What Anthropology, Race, and Equity have to do with Microbes". With Amber Benezra, Assistant Professor of STS, Stevens Institute of Technology (online)
Info about event
Time
Location
AIAS, Building 1632, room 212
Abstract
Poverty, resources, social inequities, and race are not peripheral to how the microbiome is studied or understood, nor are they singularly explanatory. Growing research shows that diet, toxic exposures, housing, and health care access affect what microbial populations humans have and how those microbes affect health outcomes. This talk discusses how transdisciplinary collaboration is required to study the biosocial intersectionality of the human microbiome and address racial health disparities in microbiome research without reifying race as a presupposed biological designation.
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
Practical information
The seminar series are organzied by AIAS and BioSinq. The seminars take place at AIAS and online.
Want to participate physically or online? Please contact sofia@aias.au.dk to sign up.