Please join us for our second STS/CSIS Food For Thought event of the winter with:

Ann O'Connor

Cultural Studies

University of California, Davis

"Frankenskeeters and the “Good” Aedes: Politics and Science in the Body of the Transgenic Mosquito"

Tuesday, February 21st - 12:00 noon - 2:00 pm in the STS/CSIS conference room (SS # 1246)

Fears of the Zika virus in the Summer of 2016 largely centered around the mosquito as “the most dangerous creature on earth.” This article is based on work with a transgenic version of aedes aegypti, the virus’ best-known vector in Piracicaba, Brazil, and Key West, Florida during that period.  Known as “aedes do bem” and “frankenskeeters” respectively, this insect, designed with a “delayed lethality” gene for population control, had come to be radically different creatures in each community. This paper illustrates new forms of care and interrelation in the context of killing in Piracicaba, and narrates the increasingly vitriolic local politics which has split the town of Key West over the proposed FDA test of the technology on American soil to demonstrate how formative contestation on the nature and body of the insect during this period of political and viral anxiety also generated new modes of argumentation about regulation, interspecies ethics and the good citizen.

As usual, we will pre-circulate a text which will be briefly introduced, followed by an extensive discussion of the work. Food and refreshments will be provided!

Please RSVP with Adrian using the google form below and to receive a copy of the text!

https://goo.gl/forms/LYR7vRCjuOWrmckm2

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Anne O’Connor is a PhD student in the Cultural Studies program at UC Davis interested in intersections between Anthropology, Law, and Science and Technology Studies. She holds a BA in Sociocultural Anthropology, Political Science and Arabic language from Binghamton University and an MSc from the London School of Economics in Law, Anthropology and Society. Fieldwork for this project was funded by the Margrit Mondavi& HArCS Summer Fellowship.