Open Lecture with Dr. Anna Harris: Engaging with genetics online - opening up internet research methods

The Research School in Mental Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences has the pleasure of inviting you all to an inspiring guest lecture by Dr. Anna Harris.

Genetic testing is now capturing the attention, and imagination, of hundreds of thousands of people who can not only buy genetic tests via the internet, but can also go online to find relatives, share their results with strangers, sign up for personal DNA-based musical scores, and take part in research. Along with Susan Kelly (University of Exeter) and Sally Wyatt (Maastricht University), we critically examine this growing market of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing from a social science perspective, asking, what happens when genetics goes online? Through a virtual ethnography of commercial websites, blogs, YouTube videos and Wikipedia sites, we explore the new social arrangements which emerge when a traditionally clinical practice (genetic testing) is taken into new spaces (the internet). Our work examines the intersections of new genetics and new media by drawing from three different fields: internet studies; the sociology of health; and science and technology studies. In this lecture I will focus on the internet research methods we used to delve into the histories of the genetic testing industry, to explore the stories of users, and to open up the controversies surrounding these practices.

 

Anna Harris is an Australian anthropologist of medical practices currently based in Maastricht, The Netherlands. Her research is ground in ethnographic fieldwork in hospitals, medical schools and online, her previous clinical experience as a doctor and collaborations with historians, artists, and museum specialists. Recent empirical work has focused on the anthropology and history of technological medical practices, especially concerning questions of sensorality, embodiment, the digital, and learning. She also regularly blogs about a hospital infrastructure, pneumatic tubes: www.pneumaticpost.blogspot.com

Når: 15.10.15 kl 09.15–11.00
Hvor: MH AUD5
Sted: Tromsø
Målgruppe: alle
Ansvarlig: Kari Jenssen Lægreid
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