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digest 2006-04-13 #001.txt
litsci-l-digest Thursday, April 13 2006 Volume 01 : Number
161
In this issue:
SUB 06 The Expression Of A Racialised Human Host in HIV
Evolutionary Theories
Fwd: SUB 06: "Deviant Agents: The Science, Theory, and Politics of
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity"
SUB 06--By any Other Name: Retitling as Rhetoric in Intelligent
Design
SUB O6: "Literature in the Age of Mathematics"
SUB 06: Philip K. Dick, Gnosis and Evolution
Panel Proposal: Extended phenotypes or non Darwinian beings?
SUB 06: Panel Proposal: The Public Face of Cosmic Evolution
SUB 06 "Technoculture Technoscience"
SUB 06 SLSA Creative Writers Read
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:53:57 +0100
From: "Marsha Rosengarten"
Subject: SUB 06 The Expression Of A Racialised Human Host in HIV
Evolutionary Theories
Title: The Expression Of A Racialised Human Host in HIV Evolutionary
Theories
Abstract:
Picking up on a statement by Winkler et al (2004) in the journal Human
Molecular Genetics that ?´the current HIV-1/AIDS epidemic may soon
deposit
its own footprints in human genomes in the form of rapidly expanding
protective haplotypes and selective sweeps of advantageous alleles?? I
consider how this type of evolutionary account sits alongside the
apparent
de-evolving or reversion of drug induced drug resistant virus to wild
type.
Winkler et al??s statement involves an evolutionary account of racial
groups
but, also, shows how ?´evolution?? in molecular genetics imagines nature
as an
unchanged force that endures beyond the very forces ascribed to it, that
is,
the evolving mix of human and viral code. My interest is in what this
suggests about efforts to understand host and virus, especially in light
of
other HIV science that situates the virus as bearing the potential to
de-evolve in terms on going replication and mutation. My query of
evolutionary approaches in HIV will be informed by an emphasis on
relationality that draws on the work of Mariam Fraser and also that of
Andrew Barry in their use of A.N. Whitehead to conceive of entities (not
objects) as enduring and changing.
Key words: HIV molecular genetics, HIV antiretroviral drugs, drug
resistance, racial categories and evolutionary theory
Marsha Rosengarten, Lecturer and Convenor of MA Gender, Life, Politics
in
Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK.
E-Mail: m.rosengarten@gold.ac.uk
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 12:05:30 -0400
From: "Wayne Miller"
Subject: Fwd: SUB 06: "Deviant Agents: The Science, Theory, and Politics
of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity"
- --=__Part6E4B1A5A.0__=
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>>> "Alaimo, Stacy" 4/12/2006 11:57:32 AM >>>
"Deviant Agents: The Science, Theory, and Politics of Multiple Chemical
Sensitivity"
Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) presents a potent site for
examining scientific, material, and cultural evolutions as ongoing
"intra-actions" (in Barad's terms.) Such evolutions constitute a
trans-corporeal space, in which the human body can never be disentangled
from the material world, a world comprised of emergent, entangled
biological creatures as well as a multitude of xenobiotic substances.
Understanding this transcorporeal space requires more robust theories of
material agency. Ironically, even as medical science has been unable
to "capture the material agency" (Pickering) of this syndrome with
effective tests, people who are chemically reactive must continually
negotiate the intra-acting material agencies of every place that they
encounter. Even as MCS is denounced as "immaterial," by scientists who
claim it is a psychological, not medical problem, it has incited
scholars immersed in social constructionist paradigms to insist upon the
unruly materiality of the phenomenon. By drawing on Ladelle McWhorter's
queer conception of deviation, which articulates evolutionary change
with political subversion, the unruly materiality of MCS and other
phenomena can be understood as a kind of deviant agency, that bears both
utopian and dystopian dimensions, both biological and political force.
These deviant agencies interconnect science studies, disability studies,
corporeal theory, and environmental ethics.
Key words: medicine, materiality, agency, environmental ethics,
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
Dr. Stacy Alaimo
Associate Professor of English
University of Texas at Arlington
stacya@exchange.uta.edu
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:56:48 -0400
From: "Smyczek, Jeremy Paul"
Subject: SUB 06--By any Other Name: Retitling as Rhetoric in Intelligent
Design
Jeremy Smyczek
MA Program in English
University of North Carolina Wilmington
jps0869@uncw.edu =20
(910) 228-9636
=20
=20
=20
=20
On Dec. 20, 2005, U.S. District Court Judge John Jones III (Middle =
Pennsylvania) maintained that intelligent design (ID) theory, the idea =
that biological life is "irreducibly complex," and must by inference be
=
attributed to a divine creator, is "merely biblical creationism in a new
=
guise." This view is in accordance with that held by the substantial =
majority of laboratory biologists and most educators that this new name
=
does not itself denote a new intellectual or scientific entity. =
Proponents of evolution in the biological curricula claimed a watershed
=
moment in their efforts to cement the teaching of physical science =
without appended metaphysics. =20
Yet, even if the assertion is granted that this nominal new movement is
=
but an old movement repackaged, the effects of this renaming remain =
uncertain and largely unexplored. This essay argues that the rhetorical
=
implications of retitling creationism are more significant than is =
popularly assumed. It explores intelligent design as a title-as well as
=
the intents and effects of that title toward and upon adherents and the
=
broadcast media who are the arbiters of public nomenclature. What will
=
be ultimately examined is the manner in which the new name for this =
movement can successfully alter public perceptions of its nature.
=20
=20
=20
. =20
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 16:32:05 -0500
From: "Anne Brubaker"
Subject: SUB O6: "Literature in the Age of Mathematics"
keywords: mathematics, science fiction, theory, the body
"Literature in the Age of Mathematics"
Feminist critiques of Descartes have paid particular attention to the
gendered dualisms and masculinist underpinnings that structure
Cartesian epistemology, and these critiques have contributed
significantly to the breakdown of Cartesian subjectivity within
contemporary literary and cultural theory. I argue, however, that this
breakdown has not occurred equally across all disciplines; mathematics
in particular has been reluctant to
give up on a Cartesian worldview. Thus, feminist scholarship can
usefully turn to the subject of mathematics as both a means to
reproduce the always-split or fractured self, as well as a
particularly enduring way of describing 'difference' along gender
lines. After all, Descartes, both a philosopher and a mathematician,
bases his understanding of the subject on a mathematical conception of
being; the mental realm is separate from the physical world just as
mathematical truths are independent of an always-changing Nature. In
other words, for Descartes and many of his contemporaries and
successors, mathematics exists independently from a material subject,
and this division marks the centuries-long square off between
mathematics and the material, corporeal self that we see played out in
philosophy as well in early modern through modernist literature.
While this tradeoff between mathematics and the material subject
manifests itself particularly in the work of male modernists writers
like Evgeny Zamyatin and Thomas Pynchon, this paper explores how women
science fiction writers including Judith Merill, Joanna Russ, and
Ursula K. Le Guin negotiate the subject's relationship to an emerging
technoscientific culture, and offer different sorts of critiques of
the mathematization=97and masculinization=97of "modern culture." Drawing
on the work of Philip Mirowski, I trace both the destabilization and
reappropriation of Cartesian dualisms in the fiction of Merill, Russ,
and Le Guin. I follow this feminist 'poaching' and exploration of
mathematics as a way to offer a feminist take on masculinist science
and metaphysics.
Anne Brubaker
PhD candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of English
abrubakr@uiuc.edu
- -
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 20:01:47 -0400
From: Marcus Boon
Subject: SUB 06: Philip K. Dick, Gnosis and Evolution
Philip K. Dick, Gnosis and Evolution
Marcus Boon
Associate Professor of English
York University, Canada
mboon@yorku.ca
=20
The concept of evolution is hard to extricate from that of progress,
even
when scientific or post-Nietzschean discourses imply that it is morally
neutral, non-humanist, adirectional and so on. The notion of survival
itself, one of the defining characteristics of that which evolves, is
itsel=
f
impossible to extricate from moral categories and valuations. In his
notebooks, the German poet Novalis argues that all stages of evolution
take
the form of sins or transgressions: plants are the sins of stones,
animals
are the sins of plants and so on. In this paper, I explore the
possibility
of gnostic evolution. The novels of Philip K. Dick are rich with ideas
tha=
t
support this notion. One thinks of Dr. Willy Denkmal=B9s Evolution
Therapy
clinic in The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, the drug users of A
Scanne=
r
Darkly, or the Vast Active Living Information System of VALIS. If
gnosis i=
s
itself a kind of evolution, in Dick=B9s work it is an apocalyptic
evolution
that involves the destruction of that which evolves, the non-survival of
that which becomes, and an accompanying sense of sin or criminality that
appears to celebrate the failure to evolve. In this paper I will
explore
the paradoxes of gnostic evolution in Dick=B9s work, and make the
argument
that there is a submerged but highly active gnostic impulse in many
version=
s
of contemporary evolutionary theory.
=20
KEYWORDS: science-fiction; evolutionary theory; gnosticism; Philip K.
Dick;
post-Nietzschean philosophy
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:43:27 +0800
From: "Oron Catts"
Subject: Panel Proposal: Extended phenotypes or non Darwinian beings?
This can be a standalone panel of linked to Adam Zaretsky's panel:
Extended phenotypes or non Darwinian beings?
The ability of one species (human) to intervene, manipulate and modify
different levels of living systems is increasing to the degree that a
growing number of beings exist outside of framework of Darwinian
evolution.
From ecologies to parts of organisms, hybrids and fragments,
technologically
mediated and augmented life subsists and in cases thrive. These entities
challenge cultural and biological evolved human perceptions of life, as
well
as question future evolutionary directions.
The marriage of life and technology comes in different ways; cyborgian
and
semi-living entities, transgenic organisms, industrial farming, and
urban
environment. Artists seem to be in the forefront of the explorations of
the
broader cultural, ontological, epistemological and phenomenological
implication these entities present. The proposed panel will examine
these
new entities and the strategies researchers (from the arts and the
sciences)
devised to both develop and deal with their existence.
Keywords: Extended phenotype, Cyborgs, semi-living, biological art
best
Oron Catts
Artistic Director
SymbioticA- The Art & Science Collaborative Research Laboratory.
School of Anatomy & Human Biology.
University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY
Western Australia 6009
Mail Bag Delivery Point M309
Phone: +61- 8- 6488 7116
Fax: +61- 8- 6488 1051
mobile 0411 686 121
http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au
http://www.tca.uwa.edu.au
CRICOS Provider No. 00126G
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 19:16:58 -0700
From: "McConnell, Craig"
Subject: SUB 06: Panel Proposal: The Public Face of Cosmic Evolution
JoAnn Palmeri, Steven Dick, and Craig McConnell propose a session on =
"The Public Face of Cosmic Evolution".
This session will address popular literature and the discussion of the =
social, religious, and philosophical dimensions of cosmic evolution.
*****
Harlow Shapley, Cosmic Evolution, and the Promotion of Science as =
"Rational Religion"=20
As in the case of biological evolution, in the 20th century cosmic =
evolution has functioned as more than a scientific account of nature. It
=
has become a scientific idea invested with cultural and moral =
significance. Astronomers use cosmic evolution to promote their =
discipline, bolster the case for biological evolution, and encourage =
support for science. These themes are examined using the case of Harlow
=
Shapley, who became an influential spokesman for science through his =
roles as astronomer, observatory director, and popularizer. Shapley's =
mission was to bring the facts of science to the widest possible =
audience and to identify the societal significance of these facts. In =
his popular lectures and books he promoted a vision of the cosmos that =
held lessons of the broader significance of science for humanity. He =
drew heavily upon evolutionary ideas in his advocacy of astronomy, =
science, and rationality. From the 1950s through the 1960s cosmic =
evolution served as the foundation for Shapley's efforts to promote =
science as "stellar theology" or "rational religion," which he =
identified as the next step in the evolution of religion. This paper =
will focus on Harlow Shapley's use of cosmic evolution as a central =
theme in his efforts to promote and popularize science.=20
Keywords: biological evolution, cosmic evolution, popularization of =
science, rationality, science and religion=20
JoAnn Palmeri=20
Graduate Assistant=20
School of Library and Information Studies=20
University of Oklahoma=20
401 West Brooks, Room 120=20
Norman, OK 73019=20
palmerij@ou.edu =20
*****
Cosmic Evolution: Origins, Development and Uses of an Idea
Cosmic evolution has become the conceptual framework within which modern
=
astronomy is undertaken, and is the guiding principle of major NASA =
programs such as Origins and Astrobiology. While there are 19th- and =
early 20th century antecedents, it was only at mid-20th century that =
full-blown cosmic evolution began to be articulated and accepted as a =
research paradigm extending from the Big Bang to life, intelligence and
=
the evolution of culture. Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapley was =
particularly important in spreading the idea to the public in the 1950s,
=
and NASA embraced the idea in the 1970s as part of its SETI program and
=
later its exobiology and astrobiology programs. Eric Chaisson, Carl =
Sagan and others were early proponents of cosmic evolution, and it =
continues to be elaborated in ever more subtle form as a scientific =
research program. It is taught in some universities as "Big History," =
the ultimate in Fernand Braudel's longue dur=E9e history. It also has =
religious and philosophical implications; Arthur Peacocke, a biochemist
=
and an Anglican priest, has termed cosmic evolution "Genesis for the =
Third Millennium." This paper documents the development of the idea, and
=
argues that it will play an increasingly important role in the Third =
Millennium.
Keywords: cosmic evolution, SETI, astrobiology, NASA
Steven J. Dick
NASA Chief Historian
NASA HQ
Washington, DC
steven.j.dick@nasa.gov
*****
Evolutionary Metaphors and the Popularization of Big Bang Cosmology
Since early in the development of big bang cosmology, evolutionary =
metaphors have been applied to cosmological theories. George Gamow =
invoked the metaphor in part to distance himself from the ex nihilo =
implications of the expanding universe, implications that his work on =
the early universe drew ever greater attention to. Many astronomers, =
physicists, and science writers since the 1950s have extended the use of
=
this metaphor in many directions. For some, the word evolution merely =
implies development over time. Lee Smolin, on the other hand, has =
advanced the idea of "cosmological natural selection," fully embracing =
the evolutionary metaphor. In this paper, I will examine the origins of
=
evolutionary language in popular works on cosmology, and draw attention
=
to the implications that these metaphors have for the reception of the =
big bang in philosophical and popular contexts.=20
Keywords:=20
metaphor, narrative, popular literature, big bang, natural selection=20
Craig McConnell, Ph.D.=20
Assistant Professor=20
Department of Liberal Studies=20
California State University, Fullerton=20
cmcconnell@fullerton.edu=20
http://faculty.fullerton.edu/cmcconnell=20
*****
-------------------------------
>>> Val Hartouni 4/13/2006 1:00 AM >>>
Re: SUB 06 "Technoculture Technoscience"
Name:Valerie Hartouni
Paper Title: ?¨Technocolor Technoscience?Æ
Abstract: In this essay, I examine some of the ways in which
genetic innovations and contemporary anxieties and fantasies with
respect to them are culturally organized, articulated,
negotiated, and provisionally resolved. My point of departure is
Andrew Niccol??s 1997 science-fiction film, GATTACA which imagines
a dystopic future populated by mostly perfect people, called
?¨Valids.?Æ Genetically designed and enhanced, they enjoy all forms
of social access and advantage. Naturally conceived people, or
?¨In-Valids,?Æ?± so-called because of their imperfect DNA
structures?± are the working drones in this world. Although the
plot and outcome of GATTACA are both predictable?± ?¨In-Valid?Æ
Vincent Freeman buys the identity of an incapacitated ?¨Valid?Æ
through a DNA broker and becomes an aeronautics navigator against
all odds and all forms of adversity?± the film nevertheless raises
and leaves unsettled a host of questions about what, in the end,
constitutes individual identity, choice, will, responsibility,
and freedom in a world fundamentally reshaped by biology-based
technologies. While humanism may prevail yet again in this
imagined account of its showdown with technoscience, its victory
is hardly definitive. Conventional understandings of who or what
counts as distinctly human and their anchoring assumptions may
yet again be rescued, but not without having also been reshaped.
Key words:
Humanism, individualism, identity, technoscience, genetics
Contact details:
Valerie Hartouni
University of California, San Diego
vhartouni@ucsd.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
V. Hartouni
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Dr.
La Jolla, CA 92093
-------------------------------
>>> Laura Otis 4/13/2006 5:41 AM >>>
SLSA Creative Writers Read
Since its founding almost 20 years ago, SLS has been a home to creative
people. Writers have walked among us and probably always will. In two
affiliated sessions, some of the novelists, playwrights, poets, short
story writers, cybernetic artists and coders of SLSA would like to read
from their works. By reading, we hope to initiate a discussion about
how the creation of new literature can help people to appreciate the
complex relationship between literature and science. The first session
will feature creative works exploring neuroscience and the mind; the
second, works engaging science, society, and social issues. We would
like to link these two sessions to ?¨Creative Integration?Æ and
?¨Teaching
Science with Theater?Æ to form a creative writing stream at this year??s
conference.
SLSA Creative Writers Read, Session I:
1) David Porush, Executive Director, SUNY Learning Environments, MS
Scars
dporush@yahoo.com
Designed in collaboration with the Iranian graphic artist Reza
Negarestani, MS Scars is a reflective website inviting the visitor to
derive meaning from the intersection of medical theories of
autoimmunity, literary theories of language and writing, and Jewish
teachings about language and the body.
David Porush was one of the co-founders of the Society for Literature
and Science. He is the author of The Soft Machine: Cybernetic Fiction
and numerous essays about the intersection of science, technology, and
culture. Porush is currently Executive Director of SUNY Learning
Environments, responsible for identifying and deploying new media to
support the academic enterprise on the 64 SUNY campuses. He was a
professor of English at the College of William and Mary and of
Electronic Media Arts and Communication at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute.
2) Bruce Beasely, Poet and Professor of English, Western Washington
University
Bruce.Beasley@wwu.edu
Beasely will read poems from his recent collection, Lord Brain, which
are drawn from neuroscience and cosmology. The book is an extended
meditation on the nature of mind and self, interweaving language and
images from cosmology, neuroscience, and theology.
Bruce Beasely is the author of six collections of poems, most recently
Lord Brain (winner of the University of Georgia Press contemporary
poetry series competition). He won the 1996 Colorado Prize (selected by
Charles Wright) for his book Summer Mystagogia, and his book The Corpse
Flower: New and Selected Poems will be published this fall. His
sequence on DNA and the Human Genome Project, "Genomic Vanitas and
Memento Vivi," appeared recently in The Kenyon Review. He has won
fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Artist
Trust, and two Pushcart Prizes in poetry.
3) Stephanie Strickland and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo, Slipping Glimpse
strickla@mail.slc.edu
cynthia@cynthialawson.com
In ?¨Slipping Glimpse,?Æ Strickland and Jaramillo use code to enhance
the
fluctuational quality of text and to make it responsive to ?´silent
reading?? by moving water; or,
more exactly, by videos of moving water shot expressly by Paul Ryan, an
ecological activist, to capture chreods, those structually stable
islands
into which every natural process decomposes. They aim to speak as part
of
the flow of living in a living flow, to speak ?´creek?? language, a
language
that relates to the patterns and pathways by which living is organized
as
these were theorized by Waddington, Thom, and Bateson.
Stephanie Strickland is both a print and a new media poet with several
prizewinning works in both media. She has taught at many universities,
including Parsons The New School for Design, and serves on the board of
the Electronic Literature Organization.
Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo is a new media artist, educator, and
technologist.
She is currently Director of the Integrated Design Curriculum and
Assistant
Professor at Parsons The New School for Design.
4) Sue Hagedorn and Cheryl Ruggiero, ?¨The Catalyst Trilogy?Æ
hagedors@vt.edu
The year is 2207. Fearing predatory images she picks up from the
Ghessi, an alien mammalian species at whose Earth embassy she serves,
empathic protocol aide Sophia Bellis agreed to be trained as an
undercover agent and to be treated with what she believes are human DNA
fragments that will enhance her empathic sensitivity. She hadn??t
planned on loving Mike Deem, the rash exomicrobiologist who both
discovered and injected the fragments, nor on becoming pregnant, nor on
having the fragments form a collective sentience in her brain that is
learning to talk. These catalysts also trigger reactions in her unborn
son and his father that would have killed them if they were not, at the
opening of the story, being kept alive in a semistasis tank, provided
Sophia goes ahead with a mission to the new Ghessian embassy. Leaving,
she wonders if she is still human, with the secret alien sentience in
her brain, and whether she will truly be able to return- the catalysts
seem to threaten all male mammals, including human males.
Keywords: Neuroscience, Multiple Sclerosis, Poetry, Code, Video,
Chreod, Environment, Empathy, Science Fiction
SLSA Creative Writers Read, Session II:
1) Bob Martinez, Professor of Biology, Quinnipiac University, ?¨The
Gold Shop?Æ
bob.martinez@att.net
Martinez??s short story "The Gold Shop" deals with the contrast between
economic systems and real value, what is important in life and what is
not important, and the idea that we should appreciate things for their
own value, not for values that are imposed on them by others. It is
set in the Principality of Asturias, in northern Spain, at some
uncertain time in the past (maybe 200 to 300 years ago), and fuses the
real, the mythical and the magical.
Born in California and raised in Niagara Falls, New York, Bob Martinez
earned his BS in Biology at Niagara University and his PhD in Genetics
at the University of California at Berkeley. He is currently Professor
of Biology at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, where he
has served as department chair for 18 years. His teaching interests
are both scientific and interdisciplinary and include genetics,
bioethics, and a course in science and literature which touches on
biological evolution, cultural evolution, genetics, philosophy,
religion, history, languages and linguistics, issues of censorship and
many other topics.
2) Lauren Gunderson, Playwright and Creative Writing Teacher, MASS
Lauren@laurengunderson.com
MASS
Drama. 10 minutes. 1w.
A one-woman play exploring Lieserl, the true lost daughter of Einstein.
Using relativity, the play presents a young woman searching for her
father through space, time, and the history of science.
Character: Lieserl ?± age 18, dark, serious girl. Dressed for today??s
weather, but her clothes are dark and reminiscent of late 19th century
style.
Setting:Today, somewhere nearby. A simple over-head projector nearby.
Lauren Gunderson is an Atlanta-based playwright, screenwriter, short
story author, and actor. Her work has received national praise and
awards including the Berrilla Kerr Award for American Theatre, Young
Playwright??s Award, Essential Theatre Prize, Virtual Theatre Prizes and
many others. Graduating from Emory University, she was a finalist for
the O??Neill Playwrights Center, Chesterfield Screenwriting Award, The
Princess Grace Award, and the Heidmann Award for 10-minute plays. She
has been produced off-Broadway, off-off Broadway, regionally, and
locally in Atlanta. Her play Leap has just been published with Theatre
Emory??s Playwriting Center, and her first collection of plays Deepen
The Mystery: Science and the South Onstage was published with IUniverse
this January. Her short story Cancer/Dish was recently awarded the
Noremberga Short Fiction Award, She has spoken nationally and
internationally on the intersection of science and theatre at
conference all over the world including University of Glamorgan,
University of Santa Barbara, Wofford College, and Texas Lutheran
University. She teaches at high schools, universities, and
organizations across the US. She is interested in science, history,
world intellect, social politics, feminism, and global humanism.
3) Suzanne Paola, Poet and Non-Fiction Writer
Suzanne.Paola@wwu.edu
Paola will read from her poems and non-fiction works on environment,
radioactivity, and cloning.
Suzanne Paola (Susanne Antonetta) is the author of the nonfiction works
A Mind Apart (Tarcher/Penguin, 2005), a study of neurological diversity
and its role in processes of evolution, winner of the NAMI/Ken Johnson
award for promoting understanding of mental difference, and Body Toxic:
An Environmental Memoir, a life story told through the lens of
environmental pollution. Body Toxic was a New York Times Notable Book
and winner of an American Book Award. Her most recent book of poetry,
The Lives of the Saints, weaves together theological immortality, the
half-lives of radiation, the US Human Radiation Experiments of the Cold
War, and such contemporary dilemmas as cloning.
4) Laura Otis, Professor of English, Emory University, Lacking in
Substance
otis@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
Lacking in Substance follows the cross-country trek of a
scientist-turned-creative writing teacher who is struggling to write a
novel and to rekindle a relationship that foundered 20 years ago. Her
adventures on the road are told alternately with scenes from her
emerging novel, in which an indigent young woman cares for a demented
old woman who was herself a scientist in her youth.
Laura Otis began her career as a Biochemist and Neuroscientist and
changed her focus to literature in the mid-1980s. She is the author of
the academic books Organic Memory (1994), Membranes (1999), and
Networking (2001) and the translator of Santiago Ram?õn y Cajal??s
Vacation Stories (2001). Since 1997, she has been writing novels, of
which Lacking in Substance is the fourth. She is currently a Professor
of English and Liberal Arts at Emory University and a guest scholar at
the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.
Keywords: Economics, Gender, Einstein, Environment
