Bio Humanities Research Group
Intersection of the Humanities and Biological Sciences
Bio-Humanities is an emerging field distinguished by its critical and creative appropriation of findings in the biological sciences for the purpose of reimagining and reconfiguring our sense of human being and of the meaning and significance of human undertakings.
Collectively and in concert, humanities scholars give a rich and multi-faceted account of the features and fractures of cultural and political life. To bring biology within the circuit of resources that humanities scholars use to understand social, cultural, and political forms is neither to replace other resources, to position biology as a foundational form of knowledge upon which other kinds of claims might rest as they are elaborated, nor to endeavor to reduce scientific claims and practices to their historical and ideological contexts.
Led by Mellon Faculty Fellow Samantha Frost, HRI’s Bio Humanities Research Group explored how the resonances and frictions between scientific modes of self-knowledge and other modes of self-knowledge might prompt novel forms of analysis, critique, creative enterprise, or collective self-understanding.
Public Programming Highlights
These themes were explored in the research group’s public event series, which brought speakers to campus from around the globe.
2016–2017
- “Bio Humanities Interchanges” with Felicity Callard, Joan Fujimura, and Zaneta Thayer
- “Experiments in Thinking the Human,” a two-day symposium with 14 presenters from campus and around the world
- Undergraduate Research Symposium, featuring work from Bio Humanities interns and 12 presenters across campus
2017–2018
- “Bio Humanities Interchanges” with Celia Roberts, Sari Van Anders, Timothy Ingold, and Thomas Lemke
- “Beyond Therapy and Enhancement: Restructuring Ethical Debates on Biotechnological Innovation,“ a one-day symposium, organized by Post-Doctoral Fellows Rosine Kelz and Daniel Liu, which featured six presenters from around the world
- Undergraduate research symposium organized by Bio Humanities undergraduate interns, featuring their research project (“Unwinding Time and Temporality”) and other undergraduate presenters and artists from across campus
Undergraduate Coursework
Two courses were offered in the 2017–2018 academic year:
- HUM 395 A: “Biology and Society: From Organism to Politics,” was offered in collaboration with the Campus Honors Program in 2017.
- “Biology and Society” and “Imagining Molecular Reality,” were offered in collaboration with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Campus Honors Program in the 2017-2018 academic year.
These courses gave students the opportunity to develop interdisciplinary thinking about the ways in which science, culture, and politics shape one another, and offer students a distinctive perspective on prospective careers in public health, medicine, and biomedical or biotechnological research. Whether they went to graduate school or pursued employment in the arena of policy, law, arts, education or medicine, they had foundational knowledge of how linked biology and culture are, and how those connections illuminate new pathways for research and practice.
Undergraduate Certificate Program
HRI's Undergraduate Certificate in Bio Humanities was a thematic cluster of four courses that gave students in any major the opportunity to learn about the interplay between the life sciences and society. The certificate was designed for both students in the humanities interested in the biological sciences and students in STEM fields who wished to explore how humanists address issues of importance to their training and expertise.
Impact
The research conducted by the Bio Humanities scholars and students laid the foundation for new areas of inquiry at HRI, including the development of a Medical Humanities Research Cluster, co-sponsored by the Carle Illinois College of Medicine.
Thinking the Human" symposium