Ghost stories for Darwin : the science of variation and the politics of diversity / Banu Subramaniam.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Subramaniam, Banu, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Variation (Biology).

Plant diversity.

Cultural pluralism.

Physical Description:

xiv, 280 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2014]

Summary:

In a stimulating interchange between feminist studies and biology, Banu Subramaniam explores how her research on flower color variation in morning glories launched her on an intellectual odyssey that engaged the feminist studies of sciences in the experimental practices of science by tracing the critical idea of variation in biology. Journeying into interdisciplinary areas that range from the social history of plants to speculative fiction, Subramaniam uncovers key relationships between the life sciences, women's studies, evolutionary and invasive biology, and the history of ecology, and how ideas of diversity and difference emerged and persist in each field. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Genealogies of Variation: The Case of Morning Glory Flowers

1 Thigmatropic Tales: On the Politics and Social Lives of Morning Glories 27

2 A Genealogy of Variation: The Enduring Debate on Human Differences 45

3 Singing the Morning Glory Blues: A Fictional Science 70

Part II Geographies of Variation: The Case of Invasion Biology

4 Alien Nation: A Recent Biography 95

5 My Experiments with Truth: Studying the Biology of Invasions 125

6 Aliens of the World Unite! A Meditation on Belonging in a Multispecies World 142

Part III Biographies of Variation: the Case of Women in the Sciences

7 Through the Prism of Objectivity: Dispersions of Identity Culture, Science 159

8 Resistance Is Futile! You Will Be Assimilated: Gender and the Making of Scientists 180

9 The Emperor's New Clothes: Revisiting the Question of Women in the Sciences 200.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 234-269) and index.

ISBN:

0252080246

0252038657

9780252038655

9780252080241

OCLC:

877367803

Publisher Number:

99960551352