This book examines animals in 1 and 2 Samuel. It argues that these animals are caught up in the power dynamics narrated, and that their treatment intersects in complex ways with the treatment of marginalized humans. It draws on scholars of animal studies, of power, and of intersectionality, to ground the book in the latest theory and to establish an analytic framework, before proceeding to detailed case studies. It shows how animals are utilized by certain humans in their power-play as (...) their deaths are ritualized through sacrificial killing, killings that have pivotal significance in the shifts of power between Eli, Samuel, and Saul. It explores how animals are subordinated alongside certain humans, as both groups are taken by kings vying for power: animals and humans are plundered, taxed, and stolen by kings like David as they develop, consolidate, and abuse their sovereignty. The book further considers how animals can become images to represent certain humans; specifically, they become implicated in the construction and delegitimization of the masculinities of Goliath, Absalom, and Mephibosheth. Finally, it examines how animals interact with certain humans in specific times and places, and thereby might express their own agency and power (though they may be ultimately brought back under human control). In these and other ways, the book robustly demonstrates the role of animals in the intersectional power dynamics of Samuel. pistartAQ AQ: To NEWGEN PM: The element > is missing from the metadata pulled from SCOUT. This field is marked as a mandatory metadata content. Hence, please update the database with the corresponding data in time for the next pull.piendpistartAQ AQ: OUP has confirmed that this book has no subtitle.piend. (shrink)

Since the completion of the human genome project in 2003, genomic sequencing, analysis, and interpretation have become staples of research in medicine and the life sciences more generally. While much ink has been spilled concerning genomics’ precipitous rise, there is little agreement among scholars concerning its meaning, both in general and with respect to our current moment. Some claim genomics is neither new, nor noteworthy; others claim it is a novel and worrisome instrument of newgenics. Contrary to the approaches (...) of Foucault scholars in both camps, in this paper I utilize research in philosophy of disability to argue that genomics is indeed noteworthy as a unique form of biopower and that its primary function is to precisify impairments in contradistinction to disability. I call the force at play in this process genopower. (shrink)

The distinction between positive and negative eugenics is perhaps the best-known distinction that has been made between forms that eugenics takes. Roughly, positive eugenics refers to efforts aimed at increasing desirable traits, while negative eugenics refers to efforts aimed at decreasing undesirable traits. Still, it is easy to fall into confusion in drawing and deploying the distinction in particular contexts. Clarity here is important not only historically, but also for appeals to the distinction in contemporary discussions of “new eugenics” or (...) “newgenics”. (shrink)

Projects of human improvement take both individual and intergenerational forms. The biosciences provide many technologies, including prenatal screening and the latest gene editing techniques, such as CRISPR, that have been viewed as providing the means to human improvement across generations. But who is fit to furnish the next generation? Historically, eugenics epitomizes the science-based attempt to improve human society through distinguishing kinds of people and then implementing social policies—from immigration restriction to sexual sterilization and euthanasia—that influence and even direct what (...) sorts of people populate our future. Despite recognition of the horrors of the eugenic extremes of the past and of the subhumanizing of those sufficiently below appearance or ability norms to be viewed as “defective” or “unfit”, many people continue to be drawn to strands of eugenic thinking. (shrink)

This is a critical response to "Defending Eugenics", published in MBR in 2018.

The Eugenic Mind Project is a wide-ranging, philosophical book that explores and critiques both past and present eugenic thinking, drawing on the author’s intimate knowledge of eugenics in North America and his previous work on the cognitive, biological, and social sciences, the fragile sciences. Informed by the perspectives of Canadian eugenics survivors in the province of Alberta, The Eugenic Mind Project recounts the history of eugenics and the thinking that drove it, and critically engages contemporary manifestations of eugenic thought, (...) class='Hi'>newgenics. An accessible, original work of scholarship adopting what the author calls a standpoint eugenics, this book focuses on the roots of eugenic thinking past and present. It will provoke and enrich discussions about human nature and human diversity, the social uses of biotechnology, and social policy governing future generations. You can download the preface and acknowledgements here. (shrink)