Research Seminar Series: Mette Nordahl Svendsen

Presenter: Mette Nordahl Svendsen, Professor in the Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies at the University of Copenhagen

Talk title: The Non-Imagination of Ecological Peril in Precision Medicine

Abstract: Precision medicine is a field of future promise. Its imaginary is that ‘health data save lives’. But which lives and at what costs? In this position piece, I direct attention to how non-imagination (Prainsack 2022) operates in the field of precision medicine. I argue that central actors in the field, along with social scientists researching it, non-imagine the relevance of environmental collapse to the pursuit of precision medicine, despite its huge energy consumption and focus on prolonging human lives in places that contribute the most to climate change. This non-imagination raises questions about how anthropology approaches and theorizes the ‘life politics’ at the center of anthropological studies of the life sciences. I advocate for extending the discipline’s focus from the governance of life in politics, labs, and clinics to the governance of ‘earth-life’. I end the talk by sharing some reflections on how I hope to study earth-life relationships in connection to gene edited organisms.

Bio: Mette N. Svendsen is Professor in the Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Her research explores ethical and existential dimensions of medical science and technology. Theoretically, her work has crafted dialogues between medical anthropology, science and technology studies, and public health. Methodologically, she has developed innovative comparative approaches to investigate life and its value. She is the author of the monograph Near Human: Border Zones of Life, Species, and Belonging published by Rutgers University Press (2022).

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