Ingram, Mary C. | USA

Mary C. Ingram, doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will be an IAS-STS Fellow from October 2004-June 2005. She will be funded by an Ernst Mach Grant from the Austrian government.

Project at IAS-STS: Cloning Embryos: A Sociological Analysis of Science, Gender, and Global Markets

Her dissertation, “Cloning Embryos: A Sociological Analysis of Science, Gender, and Global Markets,” examines the social implications of newly emerging cloning technologies such as somatic nucleic cell transfer (SNCT) and parthenogenesis. Her work specifically looks at the cultural and political implications of these new technologies.

Ingram argues that both scientists and science fiction writers “duel” for the stakes of parthenogenesis-created cloned embryos: whereas scientists seek to establish parthenogenesis as a means to create stem cells, science fiction writers use parthenogenesis as the mechanism for creating women-only populations. Furthermore, these “dueling fictions” play out in how politicians, religious leaders, human rights advocates, and the media interpret new cloning technologies. Ingram has presented her dissertation and masters’ research at numerous conferences. In August 2004, she will present “Dueling Fictions of Parthenogenesis” at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting.

She has reviewed several books for journals ranging from Contemporary Sociology to the Journal of World-Systems Research. Currently, she has two articles from her dissertation under review. In 2002-2003, she was awarded the inaugural Capps Dissertation Fellowship from the Capps Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life.

Selected Publications

2004. “Spectroscopy, X-ray Fluorescence.” In Eds. Colin Hempstead and William Worthington, Encyclopedia of 20th Century Technology. New York: Routledge. Forthcoming.

2004. “Parthenogenesis: Feminist Science Fiction vs. Scientists’ Renderings.” Under review.

2004. “Mapping out the Stakes of Cloning Research: the Case of Parthenogenesis.” Under review.

2003. Review, Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? By Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite. London: Earthscan Publications, Ltd., in Vol. 32, No. 5, Contemporary Sociology. Pp. 638-639.

2003. Review, Science in the Modern World Polity: Institutionalization and Globalization. By Gili S. Drori, John W. Meyer, Francisco O. Ramiriz and Evan Schofer. Stanford: Stanford University Press, in ASA-Science, Knowledge and Technology (SKAT) Newsletter, Fall 2003. Pp. 4-5.

2003. Review, The Power of the Machine: Global Inequalities of Economy, Technology, and Environment. By Alf Hornborg. New York: Alta Mira Press, in Vol. 9, No. 3, Journal of World Systems Research. Pp. 172-174.