project

Organisms and Us: How Living Things Help Us to Understand Our World

1 January 2016 - 30 December 2020

PI/s in Exeter: Professor Sabina Leonelli

Research partners: Professor Rachel Ankeny (University of Adelaide) (Project Lead); Professor Michael Dietrich (Arizona State University)

Funding awarded: £ 12,500

Sponsor(s): Australian Research Council

About the research

How do researchers learn from and 'think with' non-human organisms? This project seeks to develop a comprehensive historical and philosophical exploration of the changing roles and understandings of research with organisms in 20th and early 21st century science. Advances in the content and technologies in the biological and biomedical sciences have resulted in new understandings of what we can know and learn from organisms, particularly with regard to human functioning, health, and well-being, yet we have no integrated scholarship examining these developments across a range of fields. This project seeks to produce useful scholarship which is relevant for humanities scholars, scientists, clinicians, and policymakers.