This paper examines Greg Bear’s depiction of a pandemic crisis response scenario in his text, Dar... more This paper examines Greg Bear’s depiction of a pandemic crisis response scenario in his text, Darwin’s Radio (1999). It analyses his portrayal of the biopolitical and necropolitical impacts of this response under neoliberal capitalism. We seek to explore how Bear represents such biopolitical and necropolitical pressures of a pandemic and the effects of this on characters who embody intersectional struggle. We do this by examining Bear’s use of what we term Network Oriented Sociological Storytelling (NOSS). NOSS is an identification of the networked connections of an existing social order and its resulting social phenomena. Borrowing concepts from posthumanism and feminist new materialism (Rosi Braidotti and Karen Barad), we examine Bear’s ontology of networked agency and emergence that produces these phenomena. This is then considered alongside Michel Foucault and Achille Mbembe’s analysis of institutional networks of oppression (Biopolitics and Necropolitics). By bringing these met...
In this paper, I analyse nine objects that form part of the extensive wax model collections that ... more In this paper, I analyse nine objects that form part of the extensive wax model collections that are part of the Medical School Collection at the University of Birmingham's Research and Cultural Collections. The nine objects are related to one another: they form a series of wax models on wood, representing the different stages of the biological sex development of a human foetus, and were produced in the 1880s by the German modeller Friedrich Ziegler (1860-1936). 1 These models were originally made for medical study, but by analysing them as sculptural objects, I show how they helped to shape cultural standards of gender normality within their own historical context. In this sense, I build on medical historian Nick Hopwood's research into the legacy of Ziegler's models, and reflect on their contribution to the development of modern bioscience. 2 The nine Ziegler models in the University's collection depict the different stages of human biological sex development in the womb. They were used at the University to teach medical students about the development of two different (and therefore binary) kinds of biological sex development. These models, in their sequential order, depict a seemingly standard process or 'typical' process of sexual differentiation in the womb. On the one hand, they mark a revolution in medical imaging, but on the other and despite their intended scientific purpose, they became embroiled in contemporary debates about social constructions of gender in the late nineteenth century. 3 Knowing this, I came to the models to investigate how such objects, primarily used in anatomical pedagogy, could impact wider socio-political discourses. In this article, I argue that it was their existence as three-dimensional sculptures, and the narrative view of development they depicted, that entangled them within socio-political debate. These models were the closest visual replica of human development in the womb produced during the period. 4 The visual representation of sex difference in a naturalistic manner sharpens their significance for contemporary socio-political debate about gender norms: because the models presented sex organs as discrete and reducible parts of a whole being, they became easy objects to focus on and utilise within ongoing political discourse about women's social and biological purpose. The presentation of these scientific models of sex development in the womb served to foster a form of biological determinism as an explanation for the social construction of gender identities. 5 My approach in this article draws on the methodology of Gender and Sexuality Studies, analysing the
This paper examines Greg Bear’s depiction of a pandemic crisis response scenario in his text, Dar... more This paper examines Greg Bear’s depiction of a pandemic crisis response scenario in his text, Darwin’s Radio (1999). It analyses his portrayal of the biopolitical and necropolitical impacts of this response under neoliberal capitalism. We seek to explore how Bear represents such biopolitical and necropolitical pressures of a pandemic and the effects of this on characters who embody intersectional struggle. We do this by examining Bear’s use of what we term Network Oriented Sociological Storytelling (NOSS). NOSS is an identification of the networked connections of an existing social order and its resulting social phenomena. Borrowing concepts from posthumanism and feminist new materialism (Rosi Braidotti and Karen Barad), we examine Bear’s ontology of networked agency and emergence that produces these phenomena. This is then considered alongside Michel Foucault and Achille Mbembe’s analysis of institutional networks of oppression (Biopolitics and Necropolitics). By bringing these met...
In this paper, I analyse nine objects that form part of the extensive wax model collections that ... more In this paper, I analyse nine objects that form part of the extensive wax model collections that are part of the Medical School Collection at the University of Birmingham's Research and Cultural Collections. The nine objects are related to one another: they form a series of wax models on wood, representing the different stages of the biological sex development of a human foetus, and were produced in the 1880s by the German modeller Friedrich Ziegler (1860-1936). 1 These models were originally made for medical study, but by analysing them as sculptural objects, I show how they helped to shape cultural standards of gender normality within their own historical context. In this sense, I build on medical historian Nick Hopwood's research into the legacy of Ziegler's models, and reflect on their contribution to the development of modern bioscience. 2 The nine Ziegler models in the University's collection depict the different stages of human biological sex development in the womb. They were used at the University to teach medical students about the development of two different (and therefore binary) kinds of biological sex development. These models, in their sequential order, depict a seemingly standard process or 'typical' process of sexual differentiation in the womb. On the one hand, they mark a revolution in medical imaging, but on the other and despite their intended scientific purpose, they became embroiled in contemporary debates about social constructions of gender in the late nineteenth century. 3 Knowing this, I came to the models to investigate how such objects, primarily used in anatomical pedagogy, could impact wider socio-political discourses. In this article, I argue that it was their existence as three-dimensional sculptures, and the narrative view of development they depicted, that entangled them within socio-political debate. These models were the closest visual replica of human development in the womb produced during the period. 4 The visual representation of sex difference in a naturalistic manner sharpens their significance for contemporary socio-political debate about gender norms: because the models presented sex organs as discrete and reducible parts of a whole being, they became easy objects to focus on and utilise within ongoing political discourse about women's social and biological purpose. The presentation of these scientific models of sex development in the womb served to foster a form of biological determinism as an explanation for the social construction of gender identities. 5 My approach in this article draws on the methodology of Gender and Sexuality Studies, analysing the
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