DDRIG: Interplay between Embodiment and Technoscience

This research examines how visions of a global “information age” have changed ways of conceptualizing and experiencing human potential. The dissertation study uses three case studies to examine the interplay between embodiment and technoscience. This work addresses broader contemporary concerns about how information technologies have intimately changed the way people understand themselves and their connection with their surroundings. The results of this project are communicated through conference presentations, journal publications, and undergraduate teaching. Combining state archives with records from published books, journals, media reports, laboratory reports, and memoirs, the project examines how the information revolution also entailed a transformation of human bodily understanding. The study asks: 1. How did medico-scientific and technological practices generate new visions of human capability and potential, and how did these intersect with visions of technoscientific modernization? 2. How have theories such as information theory, systems science, and cybernetics become localized and how do they interact with vernacular medical knowledge to shape new understandings of the human body as an informational entity? To address these questions, the project combines theoretical frameworks from Science and Technology Studies with archival research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.