Letters-feminist science studies letter

Feminist science studies cover letter--

I am writing to express my interest in the tenure-track position in History of Science and WGS, which was advertised on the STSGRAD website. I was this past June awarded a Ph.D. in Women's Studies from UCLA. My scholarship on gender and race in science and medicine make me a strong candidate for this position.

I seek an academic position that will allow me to continue studying contemporary formations of gender and race in scientific discourses of disease. I approach the study of scientific discourse through an interdisciplinary lens, as constituted by media, culture and other features of social and historical context as much as by practices occurring in the circumscribed realm of science proper. My first research project concerned the intersecting discourses of science and Orientalism represented by the U.S. mass media in its coverage of SARS and China. I demonstrated the ways in which Orientalism shaped U.S. understandings of SARS epidemiology and of Chinese norms of gender and hygiene, and resulted in the notion of a diseased transnational Chinese Other. This work resulted in a publication titled “Chinese chickens, ducks, pigs and humans, and the Technoscientific Discourses of Global U.S. Empire” (enclosed).

In my dissertation, titled “The Bio Scare: anthrax, smallpox, SARS, flu and post-9/11 U.S. Empire”, I examined the role of gender and race in discourses of "biosecurity" and practices of disease control in the post-9/11 U.S. The post-9/11 era has been characterized by heightened attention to “national security”, and the spectre of “bioterrorism” has shaped the disease scares that occurred in rapid succession following the September 11 attacks in the U.S. —the anthrax scare immediately after, the smallpox scare in 2002, SARS in 2003 and “bird flu” in 2004. Through a multi-sited analysis of textual sources including mass media, law, science journals, and internet blogs, I examined the ways in which these bioterrorism-inflected disease scares invoked racialized representations of disease threats and gendered measures of "biosecurity".

My research illustrated that, in the backdrop of U.S. imperialist politics, women were discursively deployed as alternately health guardians of the U.S. nation and signifiers of a feminized white society vulnerable to "biological threats" presumed to emanate from transnational Middle Eastern male (bio)terrorists and diseased Asians (intentionality is associated with the former case, un-intentionality with the latter). I demonstrated how these disease representations played a role not only in the enlistment of women as healthcare workers into an emerging biodefense apparatus and the Othering of racialized groups, but also in the instantiation of neoconservative measures of disease control under the rubric of “biosecurity”, such as the militarization of biomedical science and the securitization of public health. Drawing heavily on feminist and postcolonial theory, and cultural studies of science and medicine, this multi-sited cultural history contributes to an understanding of racialized geographies of disease and gendered economies of healthcare during the post-9/11 period in the U.S. This research was funded by the UCLA Institute of American Cultures.

For my next research project, I am interested in focusing primarily on the domain of science in order to examine the embeddedness of cultural norms in scientific knowledge production. More specifically, I wish to study how assumptions about gender and race constitute the very scientific theories and models upon which the research and development of “bioterrorism” countermeasures are based. I will utilize primary scientific literature and popular media coverage of the scientific research and technology production, engaging in textual analysis of the language, methods, and stated purposes of the countermeasures for achieving “biosecurity”.

I am particularly excited about the prospect of teaching students in women, gender and sexuality studies as well as history of science. I have teaching interests as well as experience in both introductory and upper-level Women's Studies courses that emphasize feminist activism, intersectionality, and global contexts. I have taught “Introduction to Women’s Studies” three times at a two-year college and worked as a teaching assistant for two years at UCLA. In spring 2007, I designed and taught a course to rave reviews titled “Feminist Studies of Science and Technology” which focused on gender, race, sexuality, class and imperialism in relation to science and technology (enclosed).

In addition to a desire to continue teaching science studies and introductory women’s studies courses, I am interested in teaching courses on the history of race and disease, empire and medicine, women's health, feminist cultural theories and methods, transnational feminisms, women in transnational perspective, and the history of U.S. women of color. I am passionate about teaching and am dedicated to empowering creative, socially-aware, and independent thinkers. In a nurturing classroom environment, I encourage students to undertake the learning process through the lens of their own experiences and as critically engaged participants. I attempt to demystify knowledge production and authority figures by encouraging students to view themselves as capable of contributing and asserting knowledge rather than as passive learners. My pedagogical strategies consist of a participatory instruction style, diverse course content, and situated knowledge practices.

My skills and experience in curriculum development, administrative departmental committee service, as well as my community service are also attributes I would contribute to the department. As a member of the UCLA Women’s Studies graduate curriculum committee, I spearheaded a revamping of the required two-course graduate series on feminist theory in order to move away from Eurocentric paradigms towards a more intersectional, globally-contextualized framework. I also served as graduate representative on the UCLA Women’s Studies faculty advisory committee, as a student member of the UC Migrating Epistemologies Working Group, and co-founded the student group “Women in the World”, which put on plays and other cultural programs to reach a wider UCLA audience. I welcome this wonderful opportunity to continue working in my field of specialization and contribute to the department of history of science and program in women, gender and sexuality. The interdisciplinary, cutting-edge research environment would be ideal to nurture and support my scholarly development.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.