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P227


Governing life through cells 
Convenors:
Sara Lafuente-Funes (Goethe Universität Frankfurt)
Ruzana Liburkina (Goethe University Frankfurt)
Veit Braun (University Frankfurt)
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Discussant:
Thomas Lemke (Goethe Universität)
Format:
Traditional Open Panel
Location:
HG-10A20
Sessions:
Friday 19 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Amsterdam

Short Abstract:

Over the last century, cells have become tools and technologies for shaping, manipulating and managing life in contemporary biosciences and beyond. This panel aims to understand, map and theorize the isolation and circulation of cells, and its role in governing other living beings.

Long Abstract:

Over the last century, cells have become tools and technologies for shaping, manipulating and managing life in contemporary biosciences – and beyond. From stem cells to bacteria, they are used as vectors for genetic transformation, as experimental systems for basic research, as frozen germs of future life. Few of the biomedical innovations, therapies and industries that shape our lives today can be conceived without the cell. However, whereas the societal impact of DNA markers, predictive genomics, large-scale population genetics and other molecular technologies has received extensive attention from STS and other fields, cells as instruments of biopolitics have, with a few exceptions (Landecker 2007; Franklin 2013; Kent et al. 2006; Braun et al. 2023), largely remained unexamined.

STS scholars have highlighted the transition of cells from epistemic to technological objects: the scope and depth of intervention into cellular life has deepened over time, resulting in cells that are increasingly malleable and instrumental. Although cells are isolated, produced and formed in the delineated spaces of the lab or the clinic, they travel and have impact far beyond the walls of these facilities, aided by cryopreservation technologies. Insulin, food additives, IVF-eggs or vaccines at one point were or passed through cells. This panel aims to map, understand and theorize the circulation of cells and its role in governing living beings – such as bodies, populations, lineages or species.

Possible topics for submissions include:

• The inscription of biopolitical objectives into cells

• Logistics of scaling up and distributing cells: cell culture, cryopreservation, biobanking, iPSCs

• The biopolitics and governance of unruly cellular life

• The particularities of cells as lively objects – agency, immortality, mutability, resistance to violent treatments

• Cells as models for organisms, societies, and other forms of life

• Theorizing the role of cells for public and private life

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Friday 19 July, 2024, -