Banu Subramaniam, professor in vrouwen-, gender- en seksualiteitsstudies, brengt een unieke invalshoek in haar schrijven, voortkomend uit haar oorspronkelijke opleiding als evolutionair plantenbioloog. Haar werk duikt in de ingewikkelde sociale en culturele dimensies van wetenschap, met name hoe deze zich verhouden tot experimentele biologie. Ze onderzoekt hoe maatschappelijke contexten wetenschappelijk begrip en praktijk vormgeven. Subramaniams interdisciplinaire aanpak biedt frisse perspectieven op het menselijke element binnen wetenschappelijk onderzoek.
In a stimulating interchange between feminist studies and biology, the author explores how her dissertation on flower color variation in morning glories launched her on an intellectual odyssey that engaged the feminist studies of sciences in the experimental practices of science by tracing the central and critical idea of variation in biology.
"Subramaniam examines how science and religion have come together to propel a vision of the modern Indian nation, and in particular, a Hindu nationalist vision of India. Five illustrative cases of bionationalism animate this book: Hindu nationalist narratives of scientific development, colonial law and sexual politics in India, surrogacy and women's roles, the politics of caste and race in the language of genes and genomics, and the alignment of environmental scientists and religious activists. Subramaniam demonstrates that the politics of gender, race, class, caste, sexuality, and indigeneity are deeply implicated in the projects and narratives of the nation. At the same time, she seeks spaces of possibility and new narratives for planetary salvation that defy binary logics, incorporating science and religion, human and nonhuman, and nature and culture"--
The evolving relationship between science and religion in India reveals a complex narrative intertwined with Hindu nationalism. Banu Subramaniam examines how this idealized past shapes modern technologies and aspirations for a "Hindu" nation amidst rising hypernationalism. Through five diverse cases, including debates on IPC Section 377, genomic origins of Indians, and the revival of traditional medicine, the author highlights the emergence of bionationalism. This exploration underscores the intricate interplay between cultural identity and scientific discourse in contemporary India.
"Colonial ambitions spawned imperial attitudes, theories, and practices that remain entrenched within botany and across the life sciences. Banu Subramaniam draws on fields as disparate as queer studies, Indigenous studies, and the biological sciences to explore the labyrinthine history of how colonialism transformed rich and complex plant worlds into biological knowledge. This book demonstrates how botany's foundational theories and practices were shaped and fortified in the aid of colonial rule and its extractive ambitions. We see how colonizers obliterated plant time's deep history to create a reductionist system that imposed a Latin-based naming system, drew on the imagined sex lives of European elites to explain plant sexuality, and discussed foreign plants like foreign humans. Subramanian then pivots to imagining a more inclusive and capacious field of botany untethered and decentered from its origins in histories of racism, slavery, and colonialism. This vision harnesses the power of feminist and scientific thought to chart a course for more socially just practices of experimental biology"--