Women in Science and Engineering at Yale (2020 Edition)

Joanna Radin, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Section of the History of Medicine, History of Science & Medicine, History, Anthropology, American Studies, Religion and Modernity

Joanna Radin’s research is broadly concerned with the history of “biological futures” – the ideas, materials, and practices that have shaped contemporary systems of knowledge about life and its potential. She is especially interested in the values that animated forward-looking projects in biotechnology and ecology in the 20th century. Her research draws on methods from history, sociology, and anthropology of science, medicine, and technology. Her recent research on infrastructures for freezing and extending life has opened new questions about death and decay as well as big data and the politics of its reuse. She has begun a new book project that explores the entangled histories of post-World War II science fiction and the history of life science and medicine. This project traces the production of ideas about risk and the nature of expertise within and beyond scientific institutions. 

The University of Chicago Press, 2017